49938263 salman final dissertation 24-09-09

University of Hertfordshire Business School

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University of Hertfordshire Dissertation (2008-2009)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………… ……………….3

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………… …………………….………….4

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION…………………… ……………………………………….5

1.1 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOFT HRM IN HEADCOUNT REDUCTION…………………..5 1.2 RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY TO THE RESEARCHER …………………………………………6 1.3 THE AIMS OF THE STUDY…………………………………………………………………………………………6 1.4 THE RESEARCH CONTEXT ………………………………………………………………………………………7 1.5 METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………………………………………………………………7 1.6 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS …………………………………………………………………..8

CHAPTER – 2 LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………… .. 9

2.1 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9 2.1 SOFT HRM VS HARD HRM………………………………………………………………………………………..9 2.3 HCM – AN OFFSHOOT OF SOFT HRM ………………………..……………………………………….11 2.4 SOFT HRM AND REDUNDANCY………………………..………………………..…………………………12 2.5 REDUNDANCY AND ‘TOUGH LOVE’ ………………………..……………………………………………13 2.6 SOFT HRM IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES VS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES …….15 2.7 CROSS-CULTURAL HRM …………………..………………………..………………………………………….16 2.8 SOFT HRM IN PAKISTAN ………………………..………………………..…………………………………….20 2.9 REDUNDANCY HANDLING IN PAKISTAN ………………………..…………………………………..22

CHAPTER – 3 METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………… …….. 24

3.1 INTRODUCTION ………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….24 3.2 RESEARCH TASKS ………………………..………………………..………………………………………………24 3.3 DATA GATHERING TECHNIQUES ………………………..……………………………………………….26 3.4 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH………………………..………………………..…………………………….27 3.5 PERSONAL SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ………………………..……………………….27 3.6 TELEPHONIC INTERVIEWS ………………………..………………………..………………………………..28 3.7 QUESTIONNAIRES ………………………..………………………..………………………..…………………….29 3.8 OBSERVATION ………………………..………………………..………………………..……………………………29 3.9 SUITABLITY OF CHOSEN TECHNIQUES FOR THE STUDY………………………………30

CHAPTER – 4 ANALYSIS & FINDINGS…………………………………………………..31

4.1 INTRODUCTION ………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….31 4.2 FINDINGS………………………..………………………..………………………..……………………………………..31 4.3 DISCUSSION ………………………..………………………..………………………..……………………………….45

CHAPTER – 5 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… ………… 50

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CHAPTER – 6 RECOMMENDATIONS…………………………………………………… 53

SELF REFLECTION…………………….…………………………………………………… 53

REFERENCES…………………………………………………… ……………………..…… 53

APPENDICES………………………… ……………………………………………………… 53

APPENDIX ‘A’ (QUESTIONNAIRE)………..………………………..………………………..………………………….62 APPENDIX ‘B’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….68 APPENDIX ‘C’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….71 APPENDIX ‘D’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….72 APPENDIX ‘E’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….73 APPENDIX ‘F’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….74 APPENDIX ‘G’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….75 APPENDIX ‘H’ …………….………………………..………………………..………………………..………………………….76 APPENDIX ‘J’ (DISSERTATION PROPOSAL WITH REFERENCES)…………….……..………… …………….80

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am highly grateful to my Supervisor Mr. Kim Moody as he instructed me at

each level of dissertation and took the trouble for going through my draft. I am

thankful to my parents for their support in my programme.

I was entertained very kindly and gently from all those I moved toward within T-

Mobile (UK), DHL (UK) as well as Mobilink (Pakistan) & Ufone (Pakistan).

Specifically Liz barnes (Head of Employee relations, T-Mobile), Laura Kenyon

(Human Resource Manager, DHL), Ardisher Kiyani (Business Centre manager,

Mobilink) and Arshia Saquib (Regional Head, HR, Ufone), who took out time to

answer my questionnaire.

My Special Thanks to Mariam Bhabi who supported me throughout my

research.

Last but not the least my kind gratitude to my dear friends Miss. Geng Qian, Mr.

Moeen Siddiqui, Mr. Faisal Faisal, Mr.Danyal Ahmad & Imtiyaz Siddiqui for their

invalueable suggestions and gracious cooperation all through the research.

I would like to appreciate my tutors Michael Pye, Dr. David Allsop, Dr. Steve

Shelly, Shiela Cohen and Eli Jacobs, who put their efforts to achieve results.

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ABSTRACT

The current economic crisis has led to redundancies worldwide. When a

redundancy situation is combined with soft HRM, it is found to lessen the

adverse impact on those affected, as well as those left behind (CIPD, 2009).

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the soft HRM policies employed to

handle redundancies by cross-continental and cross-cultural organisations, in

order to identify the shortcomings in such policies being practiced in Pakistani

organisations as compared to UK organisations, and to suggest suitable

recommendations to the Pakistani organisations keeping the soft HRM of the

UK organisations as a benchmark.

Thirty-five different key aspects of soft HRM and redundancies were generated

from the literature review, and were encapsulated in the form of a questionnaire

and semi-structured interviews. These two data gathering techniques were

combined with observation to generate concrete findings from all four

organisations, two from each country. The organisations from Pakistan were

subjected to telephonic interviews due to certain limitations in time and budget.

The findings generated as a result of the analysis undertaken highlighted

several shortcomings in the way Pakistani organisations are employing soft

HRM techniques to handle redundancies. These organisations were found to be

disregarding soft HRM, and eliminating it from their application of the

redundancy process almost completely. As opposed to that, the findings

showed the UK organisations to be in almost complete agreement with soft

HRM at times of Headcount reduction.

The gathered data and the generated findings allowed the researcher to

suggest concrete and feasible remedies to Pakistani organisations, keeping the

standards of soft HRM of the UK organisations as a benchmark for them to

follow. Furthermore, the conclusion to the study highlights areas where further

research can be conducted in this regard in the future.

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CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOFT HRM IN HEADCOUNT REDUCTION

In a developed country like the UK, HRM is not only a well-established

discipline, but is also very widely studied and documented. The HRM policies

and procedures being practiced by all major organisations have become the

worldwide standards of HRM, and have been acknowledged by experts to

“place great importance not only on systematic recruitment but also on

selection, training and development procedures (involving socialization into the

corporate culture) emphasizing motivation through involvement in work

organisation, appraisal and incentive schemes” (Rowley 1998, p.22). As

opposed to this, in a third-world country like Pakistan, HRM strategies are not

standardised, and are not implemented effectively; and where they do exist, the

management continue to focus on either ‘administrative tasks or planning how

to control employees to minimize labour costs’ (Khilji, 2001); thus employing the

Hard policies of HRM as opposed to the Soft policies being practiced in the UK.

According to Armstrong (2006: 11), one of the seven major characteristics of

HRM is that it is “based on the belief that people should be treated as assets

(human capital)’. This view, however, is disregarded as far as Pakistani

organisations are concerned, where the entire purpose of HRM becomes that of

‘obtaining added value from people by the processes of human resource

development and performance management”, and the emphasis is on the

‘interests of the management’ rather than the employee (Armstrong, 2006).

During these times of economic recession, the importance of Soft HRM

increases immensely in value, as organisations have to downsize and

redundancy becomes a regular occurrence in most companies. Redundancies

have to be handled with care and sensitivity, and organisations must look to

incorporate soft HRM policies and procedures as far as redundancies are

concerned. In Pakistan, this is hardly the case, and a detailed study of soft HRM

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in the UK is necessary in order to generate a more structured approach to soft

HRM in countries like Pakistan. Headcount Reduction has to be coupled with

soft HRM techniques if the workers in any organisation are to remain satisfied

and committed to the well-being of the organisation, and deliver an acceptable

work performance level.

1.2 RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY TO THE RESEARCHER

The researcher feels that Soft HRM is a much-ignored area in Pakistani

organisations, where most companies focus all their attentions on maximising

the business profits, be it at the cost of employee satisfaction and motivation.

Such a state of affairs can only be altered if an attempt is made to study this

scenario in detail and to introduce some positive changes to the HRM being

practiced in Pakistan. Since the researcher belongs to Pakistan, the research is

of immense personal value to him, and the interest of the researcher in studying

the HRM techniques being applied in the UK and attempting to identify the

shortcomings in the HRM policies being practiced in Pakistan arises because of

his personal affiliation with the country, and his wish to see the positive

practices being used by HRM in the UK being applied to organisations in

Pakistan.

1.3 THE AIMS OF THE STUDY

Through the chosen research topic, the researcher would aim to:

• Investigate certain HRM techniques, particularly Redundancy and soft

HRM, being used in organisations in the UK.

• Compare and contrast these with the HRM techniques and policies in

place in similar Pakistani organisations.

• Identify weaknesses that exist in the soft HRM policies being used in the

Pakistani organisations, particularly in relation to Redundancies.

• Make recommendations on how to apply soft HRM techniques being

practiced in the UK to Pakistani organisations so as to enable them to

handle Headcount Reduction more effectively.

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1.4 THE RESEARCH CONTEXT

The context of the research is cross-cultural, whereby the researcher selected

two prominent organisations each, from the UK and Pakistan. The selected

organisations are similar enough to afford easier comparison, and are generally

representative of their category in their particular country. The chosen

organisations are selected from the telecommunications sector, as in Pakistan,

the telecommunications sector is developed enough to be comparable with

international organisations. From the UK the chosen organisations are T-Mobile

and DHL; whereas from Pakistan, the chosen organisations are Mobilink and

Ufone. The possibility of identifying flaws in the soft HRM techniques being

used during redundancies is based on the premise that the organisation has a

reasonably established HR department. In addition, as the research has to be

carried out over a long distance, the researcher aimed to select an organisation

with a somewhat more structured HR department, in order for the investigation

to proceed without major difficulties.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

The main research methods used were Ethnography, Semi-Structured

Interviews, Questionnaires and Observation. Four managers, one from each of

the chosen companies, were approached for a semi-structured interview. Direct

participant observation was used at the UK site, whereas this approach could

not be employed for the Pakistani organisations since the interviews conducted

there were telephonic interviews. In addition, questionnaires were developed

and passed on to each of the managers, in order for the research to be more

structured and more comparable across all organisations. Although the

researcher wanted to introduce more breadth and diversity in the research by

including two organisations from each country, he also realises that by limiting

the research to the views of the four respective managers from each

organisation, a certain amount of subjectivity can be introduced into the study.

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However, as the chosen managers were generally representative of the whole,

the researcher feels that this did not invalidate the research.

1.6 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

After careful analysis of the interviews and questionnaires from all four sites, the

researcher was able to compare the Soft HRM being practiced in all four

organisations with an emphasis on Redundancy handling. The analysis pointed

out several drawbacks in the way Pakistani organisations were handling

redundancies, and presented the researcher with the opportunity to offer some

recommendations to the Pakistani organisations on how to incorporate Soft

HRM policies in their handling of Redundancies, keeping the UK organisations

as benchmarks of good performance.

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CHAPTER – 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

A wealth of material is present these days to cover what we term “Human

Resource Management”. It was imperative to carry out a comprehensive

literature review of the relevant material in order to gain a perspective about the

HRM policies and procedures that are incorporated within the dissertation, i.e.,

soft HRM and headcount reduction. The review was carried out by studying

numerous books on the subject, as well as research through the internet in

order to clearly understand the various points of view that exist in relation to the

chosen subject, and to generate a more well-researched and well-grounded

introduction to the chosen topic, as well as to exclude any ideas not felt to be

relevant to the course of study for the purpose of the dissertation. The works of

well-established pioneers were studied together with the more contemporary

writers of the field so that effective and informed ideas could be accumulated.

The literature review is indeed exhaustive, and does suffice to lead to a more

thorough perception of the chosen area of study.

2.1 SOFT HRM VS HARD HRM

A review of the existing literature has revealed that although Soft HRM is

considered to be of paramount significance to the very essence of HRM, as

elaborated by Armstrong (2006), where he states that one of the seven major

characteristics of HRM is that it is ‘based on the belief that people should be

treated as assets (human capital)’. The concept of people as not just any other

resource, but as human capital was generated by Beer et al. (1984). This view

is echoed by Storey (2007: 9) in his statement that “human resource ought to be

nurtured as a valued asset, and not be regarded as an incidental cost”. Such

perception of the human resource within an organisation, although accepted as

credible these days by most authorities on the subject, is not however accepted

universally, at least not in so far as the practice itself is concerned. The

distinction between the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sides of HRM is elaborated by Storey

(1989), that hard HRM treats employees as resources that through which an

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organisation can gain competitive advantage, thereby leading to productivity,

whereas soft HRM treats employees not as resources but as ‘valued assets’

and a source of competitive advantage. In short, hard HRM implies the belief

that it is what people do within an organisation that brings a competitive edge,

while soft HRM implies that it is the people themselves that are the competitive

edge.

Whereas theoretically it is a major belief of HRM that human resource is an

asset and should be treated as such (Storey, 2001), in practice management is

more prone to viewing the employees as a cost, or the means, and the

organisations productivity as the end. According to Guest (1999), the

employees are more often than not ‘regarded as a commodity’, and, as added

to by Armstrong (2006), the entire purpose of HRM becomes that of ‘obtaining

added value from people by the processes of human resource development and

performance management’, and the emphasis is on the ‘interests of the

management’ rather than the employee. This is particularly so in the third-world

countries like Pakistan and a major purpose of carrying out this literature review

is to attempt to gain an understanding of the way that theory differs from actual

practice in Pakistan, and where ‘tight control’ of employees, i.e. hard HRM, is

practiced more often than not, rather than treating them as ‘valued contributors’

(Wilson, 2005).

Practicing soft HRM can benefit the organisations by improving its productivity

through greater employee commitment, as stated by Walton in Legge (1995:

64) that HRM policies “promote mutuality – mutual goals, mutual influence,

mutual respect, mutual rewards and mutual responsibility. He goes on to say

that ‘policies of mutuality will elicit commitment, which in turn will yield both

better economic performance and greater human development”. The

importance of mutuality has been noted by Legge(1995), that ‘human resources

may be taped most effectively by mutually consistent policies that promote

commitment, and which, as a consequence, foster a willingness in employees

to act flexibly in the interests of the organisations pursuit of excellence’. Soft

HRM “while still emphasizing the importance of integrating HR policy with

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business objectives, sees this as involving treating employees as valued, a

source of commitment, adaptability and high quality” (Legge in Ackroyd et al.,

2006: 224). One of the purposes of this dissertation is to point out the absence

of such policies of mutuality and the presence of ‘compliance rather than

commitment’ (Legge, 2005). Furthermore, Soft HRM ‘is an approach that

acknowledges the importance of HRM to the aims of the business, whilst

reflecting attempts by management to create a work environment that

emphasises employee development, through practices such as training,

participation and communication, and the importance of having innovative,

flexible, committed employees who are valued resources’ (Kane, Crawford and

Grant 1999: 496).

There are those who believe that soft HRM is just hard HRM in disguise (Legge

1995), and that purely soft HRM is hardly practiced in itself and is mixed in with

hard policies (Poole, 1999). According to Truss in Gratton (1999: 57) “even if

the rhetoric of HRM is soft, the reality is often hard, with the interest of the

organisation prevailing over those of the individual”. Our purpose here,

however, is not to identify flaws in soft HRM as it is defined and practiced in the

UK, rather to point out those situations where these soft policies are missing

from organisations in Pakistan and only hard HRM is practiced. According to

Legge in Armstrong (2006: 12), hard HRM treats employees “as a resource to

be managed in the same rational way as any other resource being exploited for

maximum return”. Such an approach has its associated drawbacks, mainly that

of lower employee commitment. In the UK, soft HRM policies are being

practiced to quite an extent, matching up well to Kant’s advice to “treat people

as ends unto themselves rather than as means to an ends” (Armstrong, 2006:

12). However in Pakistan employees are still regarded as means to an end,

rather than as human capital.

2.3 HCM – AN OFFSHOOT OF SOFT HRM

The recognition of employees as human capital has led to the formation of

Human capital management (HCM), which is distinguished from human

resource management in its use of “metrics to guide an approach to managing

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people that regards them as assets and emphasizes that competitive advantage

is achieved by strategic investments in those assets through employee

engagement and retention, talent management and learning and development

programmes” (Armstrong, 2006: 29). According to the more contemporary

authors and experts, such as Kearns (2005), in HCM ‘people are value-adders,

not overheads, whereas in HRM ‘people are a significant cost’. This recent view

of HRM as being devoid of the concept of people as assets, however, is not

echoed by the more established authors on the subject, such as Beer et al.

(1984), who consider employees to be a longer-term asset to the organisation,

and Grant in Cornelius (2001: 300), who states that “the commitment and

loyalty of employees determine the firms ability to maintain competitive

advantage” is one of the main characteristics of HRM. Thus our study does not

attempt to take HRM to mean just hard HRM and HCM to imply soft HRM,

rather to focus on soft HRM as an integral part of HRM and to point out the lack

of soft HRM in Pakistan. As noted by Armstrong (2006: 32), HCM “strengthens

the HRM belief that people are assets rather than costs”. If we were to take

away soft HRM from HRM and substitute it with HCM, not only would we in

effect be negating the work of many well-established experts on the subject, we

would also be unable to proceed as in Pakistan the HRM being practiced is not

as up-to-date as in the more developed countries of the world, and therefore is

taken to encompass everything relating to human resource, including human

capital (Mahmood, 2006). Even in the UK, HRM is still the accepted norm, as

stated by Armstrong (2006: 32), “the concept of HCM complements HRM, it

does not replace it”. For the purpose of our study, soft HRM and human capital

are very much a part of human resource management, and that ‘a main strand

of HRM proposes that in common with other capital inputs, employees should

be treated as an investment, whose value can be enhanced by integrated

systems of appraisal, training, development and involvement’ (Hyman and

Mason, 1995).

2.4 SOFT HRM AND REDUNDANCY

HRM policies are abundant, and deal with many varying aspects concerning

employees. One of these is the handling of Redundancy; which has gained

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immense significance in these times of economic difficulty, not just in the UK,

but in all parts of the world, including Pakistan. From this perspective, in order

to view HRM policies relating to Redundancy in Pakistan, it is important to have

a good grip of the existing literature on the subject. According to Armstrong

(2006: 154), the Redundancy policy of an organisation should state that the

organisation will use ‘its best endeavours to avoid involuntary redundancy and

that in case such a step becomes necessary, as in times of recession, the

affected employees will be given ‘fair and equitable treatment, the maximum

amount of warning, and every help that can be provided by the organisation to

obtain suitable alternative work.’ Such a Redundancy policy, while probably in

place within the UK due to the practice of soft HRM, will be likely absent from

Pakistani organisations, and the purpose of this literature review is to gain

enough of an understanding of the subject area in order to point out those gaps

where they exist and to suggest appropriate remedies. According to the CIPD

(2009), “In any redundancy situation, the immediate priority is the fair and

sensitive treatment of employees who are losing their jobs. Once this has been

achieved, the organization’s ongoing effectiveness in today’s competitive

market is largely dependent on the morale of the survivors.” This statement

itself is indicative of the amount of importance placed on Soft HRM policies in

matters of Redundancy.

2.5 REDUNDANCY AND ‘TOUGH LOVE’

It can be possible that it order to achieve ‘external fit’, i.e., to match HRM

policies like Redundancy with business strategies, an organisation may

compromise on the creating of quality, flexibility and commitment of workforce

(Legge, 1989). Such an approach, of matching HRM policies with business

strategies involves the use of hard HRM and entails the cutting of costs rather

than the investment in human capital (Tropman and Adams, 2001). In some

organisations, soft HRM is reserved for the higher level employees, which

furthers the weakening of the ‘internal fit’ within the organisation (Legge, 1989).

Furthermore, many organisations consider the reduction of employees as

perfectly justifiable according to the practice of ‘tough love’; that employees

‘need to be developed but this will not be achieved through treating them with

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soft care’, and that “it is very easy to forget when endeavouring to develop

people and to care for them, that the needs of the business must come first”

(Barnham et al, 1988: 28). It is not in the interest of this study to agree with such

a policy of ‘tough love’, as distinguished by some from ‘macho management’,

rather, to see it is as another rationale for expending the goals of the

organisation at the cost of the employees, as Foulkes in Storey (1989: 33) puts

it: “‘Care’ for the individual appears essentially as respect for employees ‘ability

to be developed’ in ways that the organisation deems appropriate, and,

implicitly, to be ‘man enough to take it’ if personal sacrifice for the good of the

organisation is required.”

In plain words, ‘tough love’ is the term used to justify the alignment of the

external fit, i.e., hard HRM, with internal fit, i.e., soft HRM. If an employee is no

longer ‘appropriate’ as deemed so by the organisation, his/her removal requires

‘tough love’, i.e., “a tough decision may have to be made in loving concern for

the employees the company wishes to retain, who depend on its survival and

growth” (Storey, 1989: 34). The second approach to achieving integration is by

attempting to re-evaluate the business strategies, instead of attempting to

match HRM policies with the business strategies, and recognising the

importance of creating a quality workforce through retraining and employee

involvement programmes. We will be focusing our study on this second

approach, attempting to identify elements that suggest the absence of such

practices from workplaces. It is not within the scope of this work to focus on the

benefits of any one approach over the other, rather to propose the use of soft

policies in Pakistani organisations, and hence the object of this literature review

is to understand completely the existing sides to the debate in order to identify

the absence of soft policies from Pakistani organisations in comparison to

organisations within the UK.

We will start by gaining a brief but necessary insight into the various cultural,

social and political factors that influence the practice of HRM in Pakistan,

coupled with a discussion about the differences in the way HR is practiced in

the West as opposed to the developing countries of the world like Pakistan;

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leading into a discussion of the state of soft HRM in Pakistan, and finally a

debate over the HR policy of Redundancy being practiced in Pakistan as

opposed to the West.

2.6 SOFT HRM IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES VS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

There are only a handful of books available on the state of HRM in Pakistan and

the policies being used there, and the works of Budhwar and Debrah (2004)

provide valuable insight into the HRM practice in Asian countries, with Khilji

(2001) providing expertise on the HRM in Pakistani organisations, in addition to

the background of economic, social and political situation of the country. These

modern or western concepts of HRM have begun to be embraced by

developing countries due to the fast paced globalisation that is taking place,

forcing the developing nations of the world to keep up with the competition

being provided by the companies from the western nations. This in itself can

prove to be beneficial for the transformation of ‘Personnel Management into

Human Resource Management’ in developing countries (Budhwar & Debrah

2001). Furthermore, according to Debrah and Smith (2000: 447), “globalisation,

along with increasing international competitiveness, and new technologies and

innovations in production and management, are some of the driving forces

behind the changes and new developments in HRM in developing countries”.

Budhwar & Debrah (2001) further elaborate this point by stating that

globalisation has ushered in economic liberalisation and restructuring, which

has in turn led to rapid changes in the way HRM was being practiced in

developing countries, and have brought HRM policies more in line with western

concepts.

Such a transition can prove to be a vital one for the success of HRM in

developing countries, many of which are in need of a serious re-organisation of

their HRM policies and procedures (Legge, 2005). Pakistan, being a third-world

country, has all the problems such countries face and more. With a human

development index of 136 out of 177 countries, and only about 3% of GDP

allocated to education (Budhwani, 2008), the country is staggeringly behind

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other countries of the world, and thus it comes as no surprise that it has not

been able to structure itself as far as HRM is concerned. There is an acute

shortage of well-qualified staff, and added to that is the lack of funds provided

by the government. With no input going into the development and structuring of

HRM, the outcome can hardly be expected to be miraculous (Aftab, 2007).

Multinational companies are considered to be the leaders of this transformation

in a country like Pakistan, and they are relied upon to bring in the western

concepts into workplaces (Khilji, 2001). Even so, the very vocational training

being provided for HRM is insufficient in Pakistan to provide a sufficient

workforce for this sector. The general assumption is that you do not need to

specialise in HRM for a job in HR, and anyone can carry it out. For this reason,

the people working in offices in the HR Division are more often than not those

with MBA degrees (Khilji, 1999). I am personally aware of a person with an MA

in Literature working as a Human Resource Manager in a company in Pakistan.

With such a basic structural fault, HRM cannot be expected to thrive. Lack of

focus on HRM, even in professional educational institutions; coupled with a

failure to see it as a separate entity rather than as a module of MBA, has

resulted in a severe shortage of specialised HR staff.

2.7 CROSS-CULTURAL HRM

One reason why western concepts of HRM are so different from the concepts in

developing or eastern countries is that although western countries are, to a

great extent, uniform in their cultures, the eastern countries are more unique

and display individualism which is reflected in the way their HRM operates

(Kohn, 1990). This differentiation accounts for the absence of any single

concept of HRM being practiced across developing countries. The west has,

over time, laid down clear-cut and well defined characteristics of HRM, which

profess a great deal of professionalism, and, according to Rowley (1998: 22)

“places great importance not only on systematic recruitment but also on

selection, training and development procedures (involving socialization into the

corporate culture) emphasizing motivation through involvement in work

organisation, appraisal and incentive schemes”. This however is not so in a

developing country like Pakistan, where HRM still is not being practiced in its

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true, or western, sense. If you compare HRM of today with that of a decade

ago, then certainly you will observe a pattern of growth, as suggested by some

scholars like McLean et al, (2006), however, if a comparison is drawn between

HRM in Pakistan and that in other developed countries of the world, such as the

UK, much will be observed to be lacking in the former Budhwani (2008).

In order to study HRM from a cross-cultural perspective, Budhwar & Debrah

(2001) have proposed three kinds of variables that impact the practice of HRM

across nations: national factors, contingent variables and organisational

strategies. Each of these can have an impact on the HRM concepts prevailing

in any one nation as opposed to another. According to Budhwar & Debrah

(2001: 238) the impact of the environment on the way HRM functions in any

particular country is immense – “external environmental factors and internal

work cultures influence both micro and macro level organisational policies”. The

external environment has often been seen to be the hindrance to the

development of successful management practices in developing countries

(Kohn and Austin, 1990). The relatively stable external environment of the

western nations have contributed to the fairly stable and uniform HRM practices

and procedures, however, the very opposite and extremely volatile and unstable

external environment in much of the developing world forces HRM managers to

develop practices and procedures to deal with such an environment. It can thus

be difficult to adapt to the western concepts of HRM for such troubled nations

like Pakistan (Budhwar & Debrah, 2001). These external influences, coupled

with internal factors such as work culture etc, determine the kind of HRM

policies to be followed by each nation and each firm within that nation.

However, in spite of these differences, according to Budhwar & Debrah (2001:

238) “there are more similarities than differences in the way national cultures

and national institutions influence HRM in different countries”. HRM trends and

practices, just like many other practices, have been subject to influences

ranging from religious to traditional cultural influences to colonial and western

influences (Schuler & Jackson, 2007). A result of all these influences is that

while countries like Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia might differ in some ways,

the presence of the Islamic influence is evident in the HRM in all these

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countries, much in the same way, almost all of the colonised nations, such as

Pakistan, India, South Africa etc, display common western influences in their

HRM concepts (Budhwar & Debrah, 2001).

A highly comprehensive study about the implications of culture on the business

environment and the values in the workplace of a country was conducted by

Prof. Geert Hofstede. According to Hofstede five Cultural Dimensions help to

assist in differentiating cultures: Power Distance - PDI, Individualism - IDV,

Masculinity - MAS, Uncertainty Avoidance – UAI and Long-Term Orientation –

LTO (Hisrich, 2009). According to Hofstede’s graphs in IBCN (2005) illustrating

the Dimension scores and other demographics for Pakistan, an understanding

can be gained of the culture and society as a whole, which can then lead to an

understanding of the workplace culture of the country. Pakistan’s graph shows

that “There is a high correlation between the Muslim religion and the Hofstede

Dimensions of Power Distance (PDI) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) scores”

(IBCN, 2005). According to Taylor in IBCN (2005), “The combination of these

two high scores (UAI) and (PDI) create societies that are highly rule-oriented

with laws, rules, regulations, and controls in order to reduce the amount of

uncertainty, while inequalities of power and wealth have been allowed to grow

within the society. These cultures are more likely to follow a caste system that

does not allow significant upward mobility of its citizens.”

This outcome of Hofstede’s graph for Pakistan is in accordance with a research

by Khilji (1995), who states that the corporate culture of Pakistan is such that

authority is unquestionable, leading to a tighter control over all departments and

individuals. Such a culture does not promote a sound integration of HRM into

the organisation as a vital component; rather it gives the impression that HRM

has been incorporated into most organisations as an ornament to give the

suggestion of development, with hardly any traces of soft HRM being practiced

as it should be (Legge, 1998). According to Sathe in Clark et al. (1994: 374),

“people feel a sense of commitment to organisations objectives when they

identify with those objectives and experience some emotional attachment to

them”. In order for any emotional attachment to be generated, soft HRM policies

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such as “participation, team working and briefing, multi skilling, developmentally

oriented appraisal, reward and training policies” etc need to be in place, as

commitment is linked to these policies (Legge, 2005). The volatile political

climate of Pakistan does not favour a steady growth and implementation of

HRM. The government has always held sway over the working of organisations,

and interfered even in matters of hiring and firing. Similarly, the strongly

politicised unions have often forced organisations to run the way they wanted,

not necessarily acting on behalf of the employees (Khilji, 1999). The unions

have had in the past the power to get anyone fired, or keep anyone from getting

fired, on the basis of the political protection they enjoyed. Similarly, the

government or the military have had the power to fire the CEOs and appoint

new ones whom they wish to favour. Military dictators have left their mark on

this system by appointing military personnel as heads of almost all departments,

divisions and institutions, including research organisations and universities,

during their period of rule

These influences tend to have a negative impact on HRM functions such as

recruitment, redundancy, promotions, performance appraisals, demotions and

compensations (Budhwar & Debrah, 2001). These traditional and cultural or

religious beliefs start to interfere with the objective concepts of HRM and

“compromise the integrity and efficiency of formal bureaucratic systems

injecting an air of subjectivity in HR functions” (Kiggundu’s in Budhwar &

Debrah, 2004: 239). As opposed to this, Western HRM is free from all these

influences, and has, over time, evolved into a complete and efficient entity in

itself. It has well-defined structures, functions and practices that are not

dependent on religious, cultural, social or traditional beliefs; rather, they remain

uniform and consistent for all organisations and all employees no matter what

their caste, race, religion or ethnicity. Such consistency has led to the

emergence of Western HRM as a strong presence in organisations, whereas

HRM in developing countries is still struggling to define itself, and is still in its

infancy (Budhwar & Debrah, 2001). Although these western concepts have to

some extent been implemented in developing countries in the private sector or

the MNCs, the sad fact is that the majority of the companies still tend to follow

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their very own HRM practices that vary from company to company, employer to

employer and manager to manager. Many of the influences have become so

ingrained in the corporate mindset that it is very difficult to do without them;

such as the huge amount of red-tape-ridden bureaucratic procedures and

immense amount of legislation that the colonised nations of the world have

inherited from the British rule (Budhwar & Debrah, 2001). As a result, while

some private firms and MNCs in countries like Pakistan have come out of this

influence, the vast amount of state companies and small organisations are still

under this influence, implying that HRM functions like recruitment etc are still

subject to bribery and contacts.

2.8 SOFT HRM IN PAKISTAN

In a country like Pakistan, HRM is still at the “embryonic stage” (Khilji in

Budhwar & Debrah, 2004: 104). According to research (Khilji, 1999) out of a

total of fifteen Pakistani organisations, only three had efficient and completely

integrated HRM. In the remaining twelve organisations, HRM was being

introduced in parts; certain HRM policies and procedures were in place while

others were not. Most of these organisations “suffer from a lack of

communication, a gap between managers promises and implementation of

policies and an inconsistency of HRM practices among employees and the

centralised structure of the organisation” (Khilji in Budhwar & Debrah, 2001:

104). Such a scenario leads to employee dissatisfaction, which in turn has a

negative impact on job performance, not to mention, overall company

productivity. Furthermore, according to Khilji (2001), employees are not

encouraged to give feedback, neither is their feedback sought, and HR policies

are ‘formulated in isolation’; all this leads to a low level of commitment in

employees, coupled with a sense of detachment from their workplace. Such a

state of affairs can only be altered if the developing countries are willing to fully

embrace western concepts of HRM which are much better structured than those

of the developing world.

Although things have been improving to some extent, as far as privatisation is

concerned, since the 1990s, the political climate is still acting as a major

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obstacle for the grounding of HRM (Khilji, 1995). With the onset of Privatisation,

many organisations have been encouraged to adopt soft HRM and modern

management policies by the government and many multinational companies

have been seen to initiate HRM as a vital organisational component (Aftab,

2007). According to a newspaper columnist (Hussain, 1999) “Wherever we look

– from the railways to the police, and from civil bureaucracy to parliamentary

democracy – an unbroken vista of rubble, broken promises and failed potential

meets the eye. Wherever there has been progress, it has been largely due to

individual initiative and determination”. According to Hyman and Mason (1995:

5) “people have the potential to provide competitive advantage” and that

“management styles should reflect the central importance of people as assets to

be utilised in order to offer optimum benefits to the business”. HR practices

should be designed in such a manner that certain outcomes such a ‘high

employee commitment’, ‘high quality’ and ‘flexibility’ can be achieved (Guest in

Mabey et al, 1998: 532). The practice of soft HRM is essential in order to

generate ‘the commitment necessary for the release of organisationally useful

behaviours is deployed’ (Wilson, 2005).

Although HRM practices have been employed in Pakistan in most

organisations, the majority of the organisations like government offices,

corporations and smaller businesses continue to focus on either “administrative

tasks or planning how to control employees to minimize labour costs” (Khilji,

2001: 116). It is only in a handful of multinational organisations that any traces

of soft HRM in the sense of employee retention can be found with the use of

managers to act as ‘culture builders’ (Khilji, 2001). Such multinationals follow

the approaches of soft HRM and treat employees as source of competitive

advantage, and according to Khilji (2001) they strive to increase employee

productivity by investing in them, adopting a feed-back oriented MBO approach

and linking performance evaluation to their career development’. Aside from the

multinationals, some large companies have started following their footsteps in

an attempt to gain competitive advantage, but even in these, soft HRM is almost

non-existent, and according to Khilji (2001: 117), “training is neither organised

nor actually tied to individual career development”. The majority of the smaller

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businesses and organisations are still employing on the basis of social status

and have no interest in the employees welfare at all; training is not deemed of

any significance whatsoever and ‘limited to the bare minimum’ (Khilji, 2001:

117). These organisations have no idea of soft HRM policies and these

concepts are ‘alien’ to them (Qureshi, 1995). Such a practice whereby “good

performance is believed to go unrewarded” is at the basis of low employee

commitment and quality, leading to a lack of ‘striving for excellence’ (Qureshi,

1995).

2.9 REDUNDANCY HANDLING IN PAKISTAN

According to the CIPD (2009), organisations must “handle redundancies in a

responsible, fair and effective way”. The policy of Redundancy in Pakistan,

however, is still very new to most organisations, who basically believe in hiring

and firing at will, as in Pro Pakistani (2009) “Downsizing is mostly done when

there arises a need, but that’s not the only rule, we have seen organizations

downsizing even when a need was not in place”. The Recession in Pakistan

particularly hit the banking and Advertising sectors (Pro Pakistani, 2009), and

the significance of Redundancy increases during recession as most companies

look to optimize their workforce. According to the CIPD (2009), “a genuine

redundancy only arises when either there has been, or is going to be: a

cessation of business, a cessation of business at the employee’s site or a

reduction or cessation of work”. However, in Pakistan, this is far from the truth,

as Pro Pakistani (2009) very accurately describes downsizing in Pakistan,

calling it “team-sizing” – i.e., when one CEO or the head of any company retires

and is replaced, the new CEO replaces the entire team when he/she joins.

According to Pro Pakistani (2009), most organisations still lay off employees on

the basis of non-performance simply by “But just informing of non performance

and giving a job dismissal letter at spot.” Some professional organisations

practice “retaining the workforce instead of lay-offs, because of the cost they

incurred on developing single personnel for a particular job” however these are

merely a few MNCs as mentioned earlier (Pro Pakistani, 2009). Most

companies do not follow the ILO when it comes to Redundancy. According to

the CIPD (2009), “Redundancy is one of the most traumatic events an

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employee may experience. Announcement of redundancies will invariably have

an adverse impact on morale, motivation and productivity. The negative effects

can be reduced by sensitive handling of redundant employees and those

remaining.” However, such a concept is alien to most Pakistani organizations,

who fail to treat Redundancy with the Soft HRM techniques as in the UK, which

not only adversely affects the personnel being made redundant, but has a

negative impact on the remaining employees, and hence the overall business

environment. As the CIPD (2009) claims, “a demoralized workforce, anxious

about job security and critical of the handling of the redundancies of colleagues,

is not likely to display commitment, enthusiasm and initiative.”

As regards to the main research, primary research will have to be conducted to

investigate the HRM policies in use in both the UK and Pakistani organisations,

but the literature review has leant a considerable amount of depth to my

knowledge about the subject.

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CHAPTER – 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The research design is Comparative in nature, whereby the same variable, i.e.,

the standard of soft HRM in place to handle headcount reduction, has been

analysed and investigated across the HR departments of cross-cultural

organisations. The researcher deemed it appropriate to carry out Qualitative

research, keeping in mind that the theoretical parts of the study were going to

be generated after extensive research. In order to generate the theory, inductive

methodology has been used. The selection of the inductive methodology was

made based on the type of research question being asked, which required that

extensive research be carried out in order to generate answers. The Deductive

approach was not considered appropriate, as there was no initial theory to start

out with, and the theory had to be generated via research. The Inductive

approach was most suitable for carrying out extensive qualitative research. The

epistemological orientation of the study was interpretivist, whereby the

researcher was able to view the fundamentals of HRM techniques though the

viewpoint of the concerned managers. The ontological orientation of the study

was constructivist, generating knowledge and learning from first-hand

experience gained by carrying out the field-work.

3.2 RESEARCH TASKS

The main tasks the researcher was confronted with were the selection of the

appropriate organisations, which can be representative of the general work

environment of the country, and which can provide a look at the HRM policies

being used; the formulation of a set of relevant questions that can be used at

the interview sessions in both the countries, enabling the researcher gain

accurate information from the interviewees and use it to compare and contrast

the two scenarios; the arrangement for the initial and any subsequent interviews

in the UK site, trying to keep the number of interviews required at a minimum,

and to generate the maximum amount of information and observation per

interview; and finally the telephonic interviews with the Pakistani counterparts.

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The selection of the organisations to be examined was done with a view to

select organisations with similar functions across both countries, in order to

afford more comparability. The telecommunications sector was chosen, based

on the fact that in a developing country like Pakistan, many telecommunications

companies are emerging which claim to adhere to international standards. A

comparison of such a company with a similar one in the U.K would enable the

researcher to generate more concrete differences and similarities between the

two, and hence to suggest remedies. Secondly, in Pakistan, most organisations

do not yet have an established HR department, and hence to attempt to carry

out an investigative research in any such company would not have been

appropriate, seeing that the researcher seeks to identify the shortcomings in the

soft HRM and headcount reduction procedure, which would only be possible to

do in a company with an established HR department. Thirdly, the more

structured an organisation is, the easier it becomes to carry out an investigative

study of that organisation, especially if the study has to be done over a long

distance.

For diversity in the research, as well as more breadth in the scope of the study,

two organisations were selected from each country. This allowed the researcher

to gain an understanding of the soft HRM and headcount reduction across a

wider sample and to rate the findings as being more indicative of the general

practice in other organisations of the country. However, for the reasons

mentioned earlier, the selected organisations were similar in their structure.

Four managers, one from each of the chosen organisations, were interviewed.

Although this did limit the research, as the researcher had to rely on the

subjective opinions of a small, though important, group of people, it did not

invalidate the research, as the chosen members were generally representative

of the whole.

The organisations included as part of the research study from the UK are listed

below together with the names and designations of the interviewees:

• T-Mobile Head Office, Hatfield.

Interviewee: Liz Barnes, Head of Employee Relations

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• DHL, Hatfield.

Interviewee: Laura Kenyon, Human Resource Manager.

The organisations included as part of the research study from Pakistan are

listed below together with the names and designations of the interviewees:

• Mobilink, Peshawar.

Interviewee: Ardisher Kiani, Business Centre Manager

• Ufone, Islamabad.

Interviewee: Arshia Saquib, Regional Head HR

3.3 DATA GATHERING TECHNIQUES

The HRM policies being used in all the organisations were investigated at

length to produce the relevant conclusions. The researcher welcomed the

opportunity to combine several communication methodologies, based on their

unique features, benefits, and suitability for the kind of research being

undertaken. According to Cooper & Schindler (2005: 269), “the optimal

communication method is the one that is instrumental in answering your

research question, and dealing with the constraints imposed by time, budget

and human resources”. As the scope of the study involved international

comparisons, it was not feasible to undertake personal interviews as far as the

Pakistani organisations were concerned. Therefore, telephonic interviews had

to be conducted with them. The main research methods used were

Ethnography, Structured interviewing, Questionnaires, Observation and

collection and analysis of the relevant documents. Direct participant observation

was used at the UK site, whereas this approach could not be employed for the

Pakistani organisations since the interviews conducted there were telephonic

interviews. Most of the interpretation was based on questionnaires, coupled with

formal, structured interviews with the concerned participants on the UK side,

i.e., the HRM managers. As mentioned earlier, due to the difficulty of travel, the

Pakistani organisations had to be interviewed over the phone, together with

questionnaires which were passed on to them through email. Through field-

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work and direct interaction in the UK, a more descriptive, in-depth and up-to-

date account was gained of the chosen area of study.

3.4 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

According to Spradley (1979: 3), the goal of ethnographic research is "to

understand another way of life from the native point of view", and as such,

"rather than studying people, ethnography means learning from people". In this

sense, whatever findings were generated by the research, can prove to be a

step forward in learning from the culture with the more effective system of HR

and headcount reduction. Moreover, Ethnography is a most effective tool for

generating first-hand information.

3.5 PERSONAL SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS

Personal interviews, semi-structured, allowed the researcher the opportunity to

not only explore the topic in greater depth, but also to combine observation in

order to get the maximum amount of feedback possible from the interviewee.

Although a personal interview is costly as far as both money and time are

concerned, its main advantage of securing a greater level of detail than any

other method far outweighs its limitations. According to Emory & Cooper (1995:

271), “interviewers can note conditions of the interview, probe with additional

questions, and gather supplemental information through observation.” The main

tasks were the formulation of a set of relevant questions that were used at the

interview sessions in both the countries (during personal interviews with the UK

managers, and telephonic interviews with the Pakistani managers), enabling the

researcher to gain accurate information from the interviewees and use it to

compare and contrast the two scenarios. The researcher was able to probe for

further information, clear up any ambiguities in his mind, and also validate the

answers received on the questionnaire. In addition, the interview afforded the

researcher a fair amount of control by presenting him with the opportunity to

alter the course of the interview if the need arose. The semi-structured

approach to interviewing was selected as opposed to the open-ended

approach, as it gave the researcher the chance to steer the questions in roughly

the same direction for all the interviews, and to be able to better compare the

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responses received from the different organisations. A structured interview was

not deemed appropriate, as a questionnaire was being used already. In

addition, a semi-structured style of interviewing allowed the researcher to ask

any questions that arose during the course of the interview itself. If, however, an

open-ended approach had been adopted, it would have become more difficult

and perplexing to compare all the interviews later on. In addition, as with any

qualitative research, the level of detail involved could make it more complicated

to generalize, thereby introducing variations. It was thus necessary to give the

interview some structure and format beforehand.

3.6 TELEPHONIC INTERVIEWS

As far as the Pakistani organisations are concerned, it was not possible for the

researcher to conduct personal interviews there, due to the constraints of both

time and budget. Not only would it have proved highly costly to travel to

Pakistan, but the field-work and data collection itself would have proved to be

extremely time-consuming. In order to by-pass these disadvantages, the

researcher chose to make use of the telephonic interview method. It proved to

be most suitable for the kind of research being conducted based on geographic

dispersion. It allowed the researcher the flexibility of expanded geographic

research without incurring the associated travel costs and time limitations.

According to Saunders et al. (2007: 342), “even where long distance access is

not an issue, conducting interviews by telephone may still offer advantages

associated with speed of data collection and lower cost”. Another advantage of

using telephonic interviews for Pakistani organisations was that no bias was

formed in the mind of the researcher, which could have happened had the

interview taken place in person, because of the marked difference in the

procedures and atmospheres of the two respective countries’ organisations.

Similarly, as Cooper & Schindler (2003: 336) put it, “when compared to personal

interviewing, it is also likely the interviewer bias – especially bias caused by the

physical appearance, body language and actions of the interviewer – is reduced

by using the telephone.” The greatest advantage afforded by this medium to the

researcher was the significant reduction in the data collection costs as

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compared with the personal interview, most of which were costs related to

travel.

3.7 QUESTIONNAIRES

Questionnaires were also found to serve a most useful purpose in the way they

could be so accurately compared and contrasted for all the concerned

organisations. They were certainly the least ambiguous method of

communication, and any ambiguities that did arise were cleared up during the

following interviews. The questionnaires contained multiple-choice type

questions, which were tested on a colleague before-hand, and were found to be

quite easy to complete and quite accurate in their purpose as a data collection

method. The questionnaires were emailed to all the concerned parties, and

were received back without any major delays or problems. They certainly

proved to be not only cost, bust also time-effective. The respondents were all

able to fill them out at their own convenience, which allowed them to reply in

their own time and their own way. One other advantage of questionnaires is that

they maintain a certain amount of anonymity, and hence the respondent feels

easier about answering the questions. Along with multiple-choice, the

questionnaires also included some open-ended questions, to which the

respondents had the opportunity to reply in their own words. These questions

were necessary to generate theory that could not be answered effectively by the

multiple-choice questions, and to draw elaborations where needed.

3.8 OBSERVATION

Observation proved to be invaluable at the UK sites, and provided insight into

the unsaid things. It proved to be a useful tool to generate more specific

questions about some procedures that need to be clarified. As the approach to

the interview was semi-structured, if the researcher felt that by using

observation, any further issues arose that needed clarification, the researcher

was able to ask those questions and thus make the interviews even more

beneficial and accurate. However, the method of observation was limited to the

UK organisations where personal interviews could be held, and could not be

utilised with their Pakistani counterparts.

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3.9 SUITABLITY OF CHOSEN TECHNIQUES FOR THE STUDY

The reason for opting for these methods is their suitability for the kind of work

the researcher is undertaking. Qualitative interviews proved invaluable in

generating the answers needed about the various processes and procedures,

and allowed me to effectively compare the two different cultures and their HRM

policies. Semi-Structured interviews, where both the UK and the Pakistani

counterparts were asked the same questions in order for a more solid

comparison, were used for the purpose of the study, although the Pakistani

counterparts had to be interviewed over the telephone, because of the difficulty

of travel and budget concerns. The limitations introduced by the selection of

four managers for the interviews were those of limiting the research to the

opinions of a few people. However, as the organisations chosen and the

managers interviewed were a generally representative sample of the whole, this

limitation did not in fact invalidate the research.

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CHAPTER – 4 ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

The current research attempts to make a comparative analysis of the soft HRM

policies between UK and Pakistan. The analysis is based upon the method of

survey and interview. The questionnaire (Appendix A) allowed the researcher to

ask questions that can lead to the formulation of concrete judgements and offer

solid grounds for improvements in the organisations with the shortfalls. These

allow the researcher the opportunity to study the same perspective of soft HRM

from several different angles, and to be in a more informed position to compare

and contrast them, and hence offer suitable recommendations.

The survey is designed to capture the impact of soft HRM policies of United

Kingdom and Pakistan in 35 different aspects. Four organizations are chosen

from the private sector of United Kingdom and Pakistan. Two well renowned

organizations are selected from United Kingdom; T-mobile and DHL. The

organizations from Pakistan include two big names of the telecom sector,

Mobilink and Ufone. For the purpose of the research, we will take ‘positive’ to

denote that the reply of the organization to the given question was in

accordance with Soft HRM, and we will take ‘negative’ to denote that the reply

of the organization showed a disregard for Soft HRM. T-mobile has replied

positively to 31 questions for the application of soft HRM policies in their

organization. The results are similar for DHL, which has also shown 31 positive

replies, which shows the implementation of soft HRM policies in their

organization. The results are different in the case of Pakistan, as Mobilink, one

of the big names in the telecom sector of Pakistan, has shown 17 positive and

18 negative results out of a total of 35 questions. This denotes the application of

hard HRM policies in their organization. Ufone has shown only 11 positive

replies out 35 and 24 negative results (Appendix B).

4.2 FINDINGS

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Each of the 35 questions is discussed in detail below, together with the replies

received from all four concerned organisations.

QUESTION 1:

All four of the selected organisations agreed that they involve HR professionals

in the decision making process of redundancies. Full-involvement is present of

the HR professionals, which is a highly desirable and effective policy on the part

of the organisations. HR managers are a specialist workforce, and the process

of redundancy is such that it requires extreme care and sensitivity in handling

(CIPD, 2009). Furthermore, according to the CIPD (2009), “The negative effects

can be reduced by sensitive handling of redundant employees and those

remaining.” The HR professionals are best able to assist at such times. All four

organizations stated that they do believe in the involvement of HR professionals

in decision making process of redundancy to make the process smooth and

transparent.

QUESTION 2 and 3:

Although the researcher was expecting that the UK organisations would all be

exercising a standing redundancy plan to resolve the issues related to the

recession e.g. headcount reduction, if they find any need to do so, the fact of

the matter is that neither the UK organisations nor their Pakistani counterparts

have any such plan in place. The result for this part is found negative for all

companies of UK and Pakistan. According to the CIPD (2009), “it is preferable

for an organization to establish a formal procedure on redundancy.” However,

all four organizations did not have any standard formal procedure. The CIPD

(2009) states that “Some organizations deal with redundancies by an informal

arrangement with a practice which varies for each redundancy or they may only

start to consider the appropriate procedure for the first time when a redundancy

situation arises.” This is the method being subscribed to by all the concerned

companies. Since none of the four companies had a standing redundancy plan

in place, it follows that their answer to question 3 was also negative, and they

did not hold a list of employees they feel should be considered for redundancy.

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QUESTION 4:

In reply to the question that whether the companies inform their employees

about their decision to consider redundancy, anticipating the possible financial

conditions likely to be encountered by the employees after their redundancy, T-

mobile has replied positively, as they do inform their employees that

redundancy is being considered by them, in order for the employees to be

better prepared about the circumstances they can face after becoming

redundant. It is a good approach in terms of soft HRM policies. It means that T-

mobile is appreciating the soft policies of HRM. While in the case of DHL (UK) it

is found that the results are discretionary, meaning that all depends upon the

several factors. In case of Pakistani companies the results are quiet opposite.

Companies in Pakistan have never informed the employees that they might

need to consider redundancy, and hence never bring awareness to the coming

financial crisis. In this case they are focusing upon the hard HRM policies. This

we find to be in extreme contrast to the policies of mutuality emphasized by

most Human Resource experts, such as Legge in Armstrong (2003: 26), who

states: “human resources may be tapped most effectively by mutually

consistent policies that promote commitment”. Such a disregard of mutuality

displays the presence of ‘compliance rather than commitment’ (Burns in

Armstrong, 2003: 333).

QUESTION 5:

When asked that do companies maintain a healthy regular meeting system

where employees discuss the possible adverse effects of financial crisis, the

results are found similar with the previous part as the companies in UK are

found dedicated and loyal to soft HRM policies, whereas the same hard HRM

policies are found in case of Pakistan, where no such meetings are held. This

strengthens our belief that Pakistani organisations treat their employees as

commodities rather than valued assets (Guest, 1999), and that the emphasis is

on the “interests of the management” rather than the employee (Armstrong,

2006: 14).

QUESTION 6:

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Some important alternatives should be considered by all organisations before

resorting to redundancy, which can include reduced work hours, reduced pay,

unpaid leave, sabbatical and retraining (CIPD, 2009). These measures are part

of soft HRM policies, because they aim for less de-motivation and frustration

among employees. When asked about their consideration of such alternatives

before submitting to headcount reduction, the results for both UK companies

are found are found positive as both companies weigh such options. In the case

of Pakistan, Mobilink does consider most of these alternative strategies

whereas Ufone does not, signifying that Mobilink is more focused towards the

soft HRM policies than Ufone. In this case Ufone is found exercising hard HRM

policies because they are found more inflexible towards redundancies as

compared to Mobilink, and are not at all committed to minimising the need for

redundancies. According to the CIPD (2009), “Organizations should always

attempt to avoid redundancies.” By failing to do so, Ufone fails to consider the

soft HRM policies when it comes to redundancy.

QUESTION 7:

It is observed that redundancies can be avoided if companies offer reduced

hours, reduced pay, unpaid leave, sabbatical, retraining (CIPD, 2009). When

companies were asked whether chances of redundancy being implemented are

lessened after the consideration of other alternatives, the results are found

positive in case of UK organisations because both T-mobile and DHL believe

that when other options are considered, redundancy does get reasonably

lessened. Mobilink is also found in favour of these factors and does believe in

first using other options, which can eliminate the need for redundancy. Only one

company Ufone (Pakistan) is found against these measures as they are

following the hard HRM rules in their policy, and do not believe in considering

other alternatives, as we saw in the previous question. .

QUESTION 8:

Voluntary redundancy is one of the important aspects of soft HRM policies. It is

considered that organisations following soft HRM policies do offer voluntary

redundancy package to first identify those employees who are seeking and

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willing to get redundancy offers. Both companies in United Kingdom have

shown that they do offer voluntary redundancies depending upon situation as

well as both companies Mobilink and Ufone in Pakistan have also shown that

they do offer voluntary redundancy. In this case UK and Pakistan both have

shown a positive trend so as to minimise the possibility of unwilling employees

getting redundant. This certainly has a good impact on the morale of the

employees, and prescribes to the practice of soft HRM, as according to Walton

(1985: 79), “Policies of mutuality will elicit commitment, which in turn will yield

both better economic performance and greater human development.”

QUESTION 9:

Individual and collective consultation during the process of redundancy is

considered very important, especially for practicing soft values of HRM.

According to the CIPD (2009), “Individual consultation is necessary for all

redundancies and the law requires that collective consultation is required in

certain multiple redundancy situations.” All companies, both from UK and

Pakistan, have agreed that they do have the method of mutual individual and

collective consultation process in their organisation. In making a comparison,

both UK and Pakistan have agreed to follow soft HRM policies in this matter.

This is the very essence of soft HRM, as pointed out by Legge in Armstrong

(2003: 26), that “human resources may be tapped most effectively by mutually

consistent policies that promote commitment, and which, as a consequence,

foster a willingness in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the

organisations pursuit of excellence”.

QUESTION 10:

When carrying out consultations, factors that should be included are: reasons

for redundancy, why and how individuals have been selected for redundancies,

and also if some possible alternative work options that are offered by the

organisations (CIPD, 2009). When asked whether the companies include these

aspects in their consultations, it was found that the companies in UK have a

system of discussing these features in their consultations. In Pakistan, Mobilink

is found to have a positive reply, while Ufone has shown a rigid approach.

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Ufone does not consider such factors in their consultations, which is highly

undesirable, and once again emphasizes their divergence from soft HRM.

According to Armstrong (2006: 154), the Redundancy policy of an organisation

should state that the organisation will use “its best endeavours to avoid

involuntary redundancy and that in case such a step becomes necessary, as in

times of recession, the affected employees will be given ‘fair and equitable

treatment, the maximum amount of warning, and every help that can be

provided by the organisation to obtain suitable alternative work”.

QUESTION 11:

By law it is expected that the collective consultations should start 90 days

beforehand for redundancy dismissals of 100 or more employees and 30 days

before notifications of redundancies for 20-99 employees. In case of UK, it is

observed that companies do follow the soft rule as part of their application of

policies and both companies such as T-mobile and DHL are found positive to

implement this. They do start their consultations well beforehand, as stated by

the law. In Pakistan, however, no such rules are in place, and both the

companies hold consultations as and when deemed appropriate by them,

without subscribing to any pre-set timelines. This once again re-affirms their

leaning towards hard HRM, and also the fact that employees are in a weaker

position as far as HRM is concerned. This practice is in complete tandem to soft

HRM, which ‘is an approach that acknowledges the importance of HRM to the

aims of the business, whilst reflecting attempts by management to create a

work environment that emphasises employee development, through practices

such as training, participation and communication, and the importance of having

innovative, flexible, committed employees who are valued resources’ (Kane,

Crawford and Grant 1999: 496).

QUESTION 12:

According to the CIPD (2009), consultations “must be completed before notice

of dismissal is given to any of the employees concerned.” When enquired about

this procedure, it is revealed that UK companies are found to complete

collective consultation before notice of the dismissal given to concerned

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employees. Both DHL and T-mobile have the same procedure, and they do

complete consultation before the redundancy of effected employees. As

opposed to this, in the case of Pakistan, Mobilink is found following this soft

policy of HRM, whereas Ufone is found to follow the hard HRM policy. Ufone

does not wait for the completion of consultations before issuing the notice of

dismissal to the concerned employees, which demonstrates their practice of

“tough love” (Legge in Gratton, 1999: 127), and hard HRM, which according to

Legge in Armstrong (2000: 14) treats employees “as a resource to be managed

in the same rational way as any other resource being exploited for maximum

return”.

QUESTION 14:

It is expected from organisations that before achieving the desired results of

redundancy, the organisations must identify the pools and pool wise individual

employees earmarked for redundancy. According to the CIPD (2009), “Unless

there is a customary arrangement, an employer should identify the group of

employees at the planning stage that may be made redundant.” The

organisations in UK are found to follow this procedure, and maintain a selection

pool of individuals earmarked for redundancy. In contrast to this, it is discovered

that neither of the Pakistani organisations have any system of an initial selection

pool. According to the CIPD (2009), the initial pool will “usually be those who

undertake a similar type of work in a particular department, or work at a relevant

location, or whose work has either ceased or diminished, or is expected to do

so.” By failing to follow this procedure, the Pakistani organizations risk the loss

of employees unsuitable for redundancy and the retention of employees

suitable for reduction.

QUESTION 15:

It is also expected that before undertaking redundancy, when there is a choice

between employees, the following should be taken into observation i.e. length of

service, attendance records, disciplinary records, work experience and

performance records (CIPD, 2009). These criteria can help the organisations in

achieving best selections. When questioned about this policy, the results are

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found to be positive for the UK organisations. DHL does take all these points

into consideration before undertaking the selection of employees for

redundancies. In the case of T-mobile another factor has also been added, i.e.

age difference. T-mobile does consider all these factors along with the factor of

age difference. The results are found satisfying in Pakistani organisations as

they also do consider these factors when a choice arises between two or more

employees for redundancy.

QUESTION 16 and 17:

According to the CIPD (2009), “LIFO remains a risky method, and is usually an

unsatisfactory way of retaining the most competent.” When the organizations

were questioned about their use of the LIFO method for employee selection, all

four had the same answer, and all four replied in the negative. None of the

companies are using the LIFO method for the selection of employees for

redundancy. According to the CIPD (2009), “Tribunals should look favorably on

selection procedures based on a points system which scores each employee

against the relevant criteria”. The method of relative scoring is found in the UK

organisations. DHL and t-mobile both have shown that they apply on points

system whereas in Pakistan the results are different. Mobilink or Ufone both

companies do not follow any points-based scoring system.

QUESTION 18:

According to the CIPD (2009), “great care must be taken in the choice and

application of the criteria to avoid factors which may be discriminatory on any

grounds.” The selection of criteria through which discrimination can be avoided

is a part of soft HRM rules. Discrimination in any form should be avoided to

make procedures transparent. It is seen that DHL and T-mobile in UK and

Mobilink and Ufone in Pakistan are struggling to achieve a discrimination-free

selection system, and agreed that they try to avoid discrimination in their

criteria. It is a positive sign in terms of employee motivation levels. Hence the

results are satisfying in both countries.

QUESTION 19:

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In the survey, when asked whether the organisations give at least 90 days

written notification to BERR (Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reforms) if 100

or more employees are to be made redundant, and at least 30 days for 20 to 99

employees. UK organisations have shown that they do inform BERR when such

a situation arises. Whereas in Pakistani organisations the results are different,

as they do not have any policy to inform any regulatory body about their

dismissals and huge redundancy plans. There is no centralised body dealing

with redundancy issues and organisations only have themselves to answer to.

QUESTION 20:

Laws related to trade-unions, part-time status, pregnancy or maternity status,

marital status, disability, race or religion are expected to be taken into account

before the application of redundancy plans so as to avoid unfair dismissals. UK

organisations have shown positive results; conversely Pakistan has shown a

rigid attitude in this regard. Neither Mobilink nor Ufone have any rules regarding

unfair dismissals. According to the CIPD (2009), “A dismissal may also be a

normal (i.e. not automatic) unfair dismissal if there is not a genuine redundancy

or if the selection criteria are too imprecise or subjective.” The Pakistani

organizations display their disregard for soft HRM by failing to take into

consideration any rules regarding unfair dismissals, once again fortifying our

belief that they consider employees to be costs rather than assets, as opposed

to Storey (2007: 9) who states that “human resource ought to be nurtured as a

valued asset, and not be regarded as an incidental cost”

QUESTION 21:

Furthermore it was asked in the survey questionnaire that do organisations give

the opportunity to employees to appeal against their selection for redundancy.

The opportunity of appeal to the employees is always appreciated and is a part

of soft HRM policies. According to the CIPD (2009), “Employees dismissed by

reason of redundancy must be given the opportunity to appeal their selection for

redundancy.” The allowance of the right of appeal to redundant employees is

given by both the UK organisations i.e. T-mobile and DHL. On the other hand

the employees are not given this right in both of the Pakistani organisations i.e.

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Mobilink and Ufone. Employees are not given any right of appeal against their

dismissal or if they are made redundant forcefully.

QUESTION 22:

When asked if the organisations have any policy of offering suitable alternative

work to the redundant employees within the organisation itself, it was

discovered that in the UK it is a norm that employees should be rotated or

offered suitable alternative work. Such policy is considered positive in UK and

also is a part of soft HRM policy. In both UK companies i.e. T-mobile and DHL,

it is found that employees are considered for suitable alternative work

throughout the organisation. However, in Pakistan the situation is entirely

different; it is seen that Mobilink and Ufone do not offer any alternative work to

their employees, which is in opposition to the CIPD (2009) statement that

“Employers must consider suitable alternative work and are expected to look for

alternatives throughout the organization”.

QUESTION 23:

According to the CIPD (2009), “The law requires employees be given paid time

off to look for work during the final notice period.” Paid time off is found

applicable in all the four organisations. UK and Pakistani organisations do offer

paid time off to their employees before the application of redundancy. Moreover

T-mobile (UK) also offers an outplacement service to their employees. So it is

observed that as part of soft HRM policy paid time off is exercised in both UK

and Pakistan.

QUESTION 24:

Some of the compulsory factors must be kept in mind before arriving at

headcount reduction such as job performance, disciplinary records, job role,

age, and responsibility level. It is observed that T-mobile (UK) consider job

performance and disciplinary record before arriving at headcount reduction

whereas DHL also consider job role. On the other hand Pakistan does not

consider these factors as compulsory.

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QUESTION 25 and 26:

The additional financial benefit given to the employees who are becoming a

victim of the redundancy plan is part of soft HRM policies. It is beneficial for the

employees to cope with the sudden financial crises encountered after their

dismissals. It has resulted from the survey that DHL, T-mobile and Mobilink

offer additional financial benefits to their employees whereas in Ufone they do

not offer any additional benefits to their employees in case of dismissals. The

CIPD (2009) states that “Dismissed employees with two or more years’ service

are entitled to a minimum redundancy payments based on a formula similar to

the basic award for unfair dismissal.” By not complying with any such

compensation rules, Ufone displays its non-conformity to soft HRM.

QUSTION 27:

Informing employees that they are being made redundant requires skill and

precision. According to the CIPD (2009), “Giving notice is unpleasant and need

careful handling. Common faults include being brutally abrupt or too vague.” In

order to avoid such faults, managers in organisations are expected to be trained

to tackle situations like redundancies. UK organisations have agreed that they

do train their managers for such situations and in Pakistan Mobilink and Ufone

have also established training sessions for their managers to deal with these

kinds of critical situations.

QUESTION 28:

The redundant employees are expected to know where they should head for

support and advice (CIPD, 2009). Both the organisations in the UK do inform

their employees about the future support centres. In Pakistani organisations the

results are found negative for both the organisations. This is completely devoid

of any touch of Soft HRM, which ensures that affected employees are given the

maximum support as “they can be badly affected by redundancy and need

support to accept reality” (CIPD, 2009). Furthermore, according to the CIPD

(2009), “Redundancy is one of the most traumatic events an employee may

experience. Announcement of redundancies will invariably have an adverse

impact on morale, motivation and productivity. The negative effects can be

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reduced by sensitive handling of redundant employees and those remaining.”

The Pakistani organizations, by detaching themselves from the sensitive

handling and support provision of effected employees, display their insensitive

treatment of these employees.

QUESTION 29:

According to the CIPD (2009), “A well-designed redundancy program should

enable employees to refresh their interview skills, redraft CVs and reply

effectively to job advertisements.” Such a step can prove vastly beneficial to the

redundant employees in restarting their careers. In this case it is found that both

the UK organisations do help their employees to enhance their interview skills

and redraft their CVs etc., but the results are dissimilar again in Pakistan. The

organisations do not have any such helpful measures in place for the

employees made redundant.

QUESTION 30:

When asked whether the organisations have any system of providing

counselling by specialist consultants or others, it was discovered that while DHL

does offer that to its employees, T-mobile has not got any such specialised

consultancy for its employees. Similarly, in Pakistan, organisations do not

recruit any such specialised help for their employees. The provision of

counselling to the redundant employees not only makes it easier on them, but it

also “reassures those remaining that the organization is prepared to treat

redundant employees well.” (CIPD, 2009)

QUESTION 31:

“In any redundancy situation, the immediate priority is the fair and sensitive

treatment of employees who are losing their jobs” (CIPD, 2009). When asked if

the redundant employees are subjected to fair and sensitive treatment, which

an important part of soft HRM is, both DHL and T-mobile ensured that they do

undertake fair treatment with their employees. The organisations in Pakistan

have also confirmed that they believe in the fair treatment with the employees.

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QUESTION 32:

The organisations were asked whether they handle redundancies in a way that

minimizes the adverse impact both on those who lose their jobs and on the

‘survivors’. According to the CIPD (2009), “the organization’s ongoing

effectiveness in today’s competitive market is largely dependent on the morale

of the survivors.” All four organizations said that they do handle redundancies in

just such a manner, so as to have the least possible negative impact on both

the employees made redundant as well as the survivors. This is extremely

beneficial to the organisation itself, as “A demoralized workforce, anxious about

job security and critical of the handling of the redundancies of colleagues, is not

likely to display commitment, enthusiasm and initiative” (CIPD, 2009).

QUESTION 33:

In terms of redundancies, the organisations are expected to communicate and

discuss the reasons, methods and procedures and plans of redundancies in a

very clear, effective and efficient manner. When asked if they implement

communication strategies to ensure that everyone in the organization has the

correct information about the reasons for redundancies, DHL and T-mobile were

found to have very strong communication strategies in place. Whereas Mobilink

has agreed that they do try to keep their employees updated with the situation

and also to discuss and communicate with them effectively, conversely Ufone

does not follow any such policy to communicate positively and effectively with

its employees. This confirms the views of Khilji (2001), that employees are not

encouraged to give feedback, neither is their feedback sought, and HR policies

are ‘formulated in isolation’; all this leads to a low level of commitment in

employees, coupled with a sense of detachment from their workplace.

QUESTION 34:

The relationship between management and left over employees are sometimes

adversely affected because of redundancies. When the communication level

between employees and management is strong, there are rare chances of this

happening. However, sometimes due to lack of confidence between

management and employees, or by some other factors these relationships are

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affected badly. It is observed that in DHL the relationships are not affected for

which the reason can be strong communication and bonds with the employees

whereas it is seen that in T-mobile relations are badly affected for a short period

of time, which is due to the lack of confidence in management among the

survivors. But that is not for the longer periods. The organisations in Pakistan

have reported no adverse effects on the relationship between management and

survivors. One reason for this can be attributed to the fact that in Pakistani

organisations, there is no strong relationship between management and

employees as it is. Most of these organisations “suffer from a lack of

communication, a gap between managers promises and implementation of

policies and an inconsistency of HRM practices among employees and the

centralised structure of the organisation” (Khilji in Budhwar & Debrah, 2004:

104).

QUESTION 35:

When asked whether the organisations conduct individual discussions with

remaining key workers to reassure them of their importance and employment

prospects, the finding was that the organisations in UK do tend to have

discussions, meetings etc with their leftover employees. This tool is found

helpful for their organisations health. On the contrary, none such method is

observed in Pakistan. The organisations there do not practice individual

discussions. According to Khilji (2001), employees are not encouraged to give

feedback, neither is their feedback sought, and HR policies are ‘formulated in

isolation’; all this leads to a low level of commitment in employees, coupled with

a sense of detachment from their workplace.

QUESTION 38:

Some organisations do re-induct their laid-off employees. The survey shows

that DHL re-induct and prefer their laid-off employees. T-mobile focuses upon

the situation and does not necessarily promise such commitment. The

organisations in Pakistan do not confirm any such commitment to re-employee

their laid-off employees.

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The analysis leads the researcher to gather concrete data about each of the

four companies, and their incorporation of the soft HRM policies with regard to

Redundancy handling. The organisations from UK, namely T-Mobile and DHL

follow soft HRM policies quite diligently. With the exception of a couple of

policies, they have answered positively to all the questions asked of them,

showing their adherence to soft HRM. Totally opposed to this are the replies

obtained from the Pakistani organisations, namely Mobilink and Ufone. These

organisations have displayed almost complete disregard of soft HRM.

4.3 DISCUSSION

This section of the research includes a detailed discussion of the findings

generated by the analysis. The researcher feels that the organisations from

Pakistan have displayed results that vary quite significantly from those of their

counterparts in the UK, with regards to their policies of soft HRM and

Redundancies.

Although all four organisations are in complete agreement about involving HR

professionals in their Redundancy handling, which displays professionalism and

adherence to soft HRM on their part, at the same time all four do not have in

place a standing redundancy plan in place, which is a negative attribute. Neither

have any of the companies got a list of the possible employees to be made

redundant. It is also discovered through the analysis that T-mobile has a policy

to inform employees before considering Redundancy, while DHL exercises a

discretionary policy; however the Pakistani organisations do not have any such

policy whatsoever. Following from this question, the Pakistani companies

replied in the negative again when asked about their policy of holding regular

meetings for employees to be able to discuss the possible unpleasant effects of

Reduction.

When the companies were asked whether they implement redundancies only as

a last resort, the UK organisations indeed replied in the positive, as did

Mobilink. Ufone, however, admitted to not considering any alternatives to

redundancy. It follows from this that all three organisations, i.e., T-Mobile, DHL

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and Mobilink believe redundancy to be minimised after considering the afore-

mentioned alternatives. Since Ufone does not consider alternatives as a policy,

it did not believe that alternatives eliminated the need for redundancy. In

addition to the UK organisations, both the Pakistani organisations also claimed

to offer voluntary redundancy to employees, displaying a regard for soft HRM in

this matter. All four organisations once again were unanimous in holding

individual as well as collective consultations prior to redundancy. However,

when asked whether the organisations had any policy of including such factors

in the consultations as the reasons for redundancy, why and how individuals

have been selected for redundancies, and also if some possible alternative

work options that are offered by the organisations, all organisations answered in

the positive with the sole exception of Ufone which discredited the possibility.

We can see that the Pakistani organisations have failed to follow soft HRM to a

great extent, as soft HRM ‘while still emphasizing the importance of integrating

HR policy with business objectives, sees this as involving treating employees as

valued, a source of commitment, adaptability and high quality’ (Guest & Legge

in Ackroyd et al, 2006: 224). The Pakistani organisations do not seem to be

displaying such characteristics.

Although in the UK, companies follow a law that collective consultations should

start 90 days beforehand for redundancy dismissals of 100 or more employees

and 30 days before notifications of redundancies for 20-99 employees, there is

sadly no such law in place in Pakistan for companies to follow. Therefore,

neither Mobilink nor Ufone have any such policy of subscribing to any time-lines

when it comes to consultations. It is also revealed that although all three

companies, i.e., T-Mobile, DHL and Mobilink complete their consultations before

issuing notice of dismissal to employees, Ufone does not wait for consultations

to be finished.

None of the Pakistani organisations have in place a system of identifying the

pools and pool wise individual employees earmarked for redundancy. They do,

however, consider such factors the length of service, attendance records,

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disciplinary records, work experience and performance records when there is a

choice between employees, as do the UK organisations. Although it is a good

sign that all four organisations don’t employ LIFO as a selection method, it is a

negative point that the Pakistani organisations do not have any points-based

system of selection in place either. Even though the Pakistani organisations do

not employ a points-based scoring system, they still admitted to taking care to

avoid any discrimination in the selection process, as did the UK organisations.

In the UK, according to Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), the

organisations do give at least 90 days written notification to BERR (Business

Enterprise & Regulatory Reforms) if 100 or more employees are to be made

redundant, and at least 30 days for 20 to 99 employees. In Pakistan, however,

due to the non-existence of any such law, the organisations do not have to

inform any regulatory body. Therefore, both organisations answered in the

negative. While laws related to unfair dismissals, such as trade-unions, part-

time status, pregnancy or maternity status, marital status, disability, race or

religion are taken into account before the application of redundancy plans in the

UK, the Pakistani organisations once again had no such laws in place, and both

organisations answered in the negative. While the UK organisations consider

factors such as job performance, disciplinary records, job role, age, and

responsibility level before redundancy decisions, the Pakistani organisations do

not follow any such policy.

In the UK, the right of appeal is given to all employees selected for redundancy,

whereas no such right is given to the employees from the Pakistani

organisations. Similarly, while there is a policy of offering suitable alternative

work to effected employees in the UK, there is no such policy being practiced in

the Pakistani organisations. As opposed to this disregard of soft HRM by

Pakistani organisations, they do have a policy of offering paid time off to the

effected employees to search for work, as do the UK organisations. Following

on from this point, while additional financial benefits are offered to employees

by T-Mobile, DHL and Mobilink, no such additional benefits are offered by

Ufone to its employees.

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On one hand, the Pakistani organisations, in tandem with the UK organisations

admitted to training their managers to deal with the unpleasant task of informing

employees about their redundancy; on the other hand, they fail to advise the

effected employees about where to go for further help and support. There are

no advice or support centres where the redundant employees can go for help,

whereas the UK organisations do offer these services. In the same way,

although the UK organisations do have a system of helping the redundant

employees refresh their interview skills, redraft their CVs and reply effectively to

job advertisements, there are no such helpful policies in place in the Pakistani

organizations. Specialized consultancy for the redundant employees is only

offered by DHL, and the rest of the organizations do not have any such

specialist consultants.

All four organizations claim to handle redundancies fairly and sensitively, as

well as in a way that minimizes the adverse impact both on those who lose their

jobs and on the survivors. The organisations from the UK have implemented

communication strategies to ensure that everyone in the organization has the

correct information about the reasons for redundancies; and while Mobilink did

say that it placed importance on such communication strategies, Ufone replied

in the negative. Following on, DHL claimed that the relationship between the

managers and the remaining employees were not adversely affected, possibly

because of such communication strategies, and T-Mobile claimed that the

relationship was only affected for a short period, Mobilink and Ufone claimed

that it was not adversely affected at all. Here, we can assume that since the

relationship is not strong enough as it is, rather it is one of employee

subjugation, the chances of it being badly affected is small. Similarly, while the

UK organisations do hold discussions with the remaining workers, the Pakistani

organisations do not, once again displaying their unconcern for their employee’s

well-being. Mutuality is an important aspect of soft HRM, which is completely

disregarded by the Pakistani organisation. Walton in Legge (1995: 64) states

that: HRM policies “promote mutuality – mutual goals, mutual influence, mutual

respect, mutual rewards and mutual responsibility’. He goes on to say that

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‘policies of mutuality will elicit commitment, which in turn will yield both better

economic performance and greater human development”. There is also no

policy whereby the Pakistani organisations re-induct the redundant employees.

As opposed to this, the UK organisations both have such policies, with T-mobile

saying that it is discretionary.

All this leads us to believe that the Pakistani organisations place the employees

in a secondary position, and their organisations first. Thus they are in effect

pursuing Hard HRM policies, whereby, according to Legge in Armstrong (2006:

12), hard HRM treats employees “as a resource to be managed in the same

rational way as any other resource being exploited for maximum return”.

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CHAPTER – 5 CONCLUSION

In attempting to compare and contrast the standard of soft HRM being applied

across cross-continental organisations, the researcher uncovered several

shortcomings in the way organisations in Pakistan implement soft HRM policies

in their Redundancy plans. The study allowed the researcher to offer several

recommendations to the Pakistani organisations, by applying which the

organisations can bring their soft HRM policies up to date with UK

organisations. These recommendations have been made keeping in mind the

standards set by the UK organisations, and treating those standards as

benchmarks for performance.

The researcher also feels it would be beneficial to prioritise the

recommendations presented, so as to allow the study to be more practically

adaptable to the Pakistani organisations. The Pakistani organisations should

start by placing more focus on the policy of mutuality between the management

and the employees. The research has uncovered that the more involved the

employees are with the decision-making of an organisation, the more motivated

they become, and the more productive they become. For instance, according to

the study, the UK organisations do inform their employees before considering a

decision to implement redundancy, making them aware about the impending

financial crisis; whereas in Pakistan no such step is taken by the management.

Therefore, the first step management should take is to foster more confidence

among the employees by making them more aware about the goings-on of the

organisation, and seeking their feedback more often, thus infusing a tone of soft

HRM throughout the organisation. Once a culture of mutuality and trust has

been established throughout the organisations, the employees would be more

willing to be understanding of any decisions taken by the management,

especially if those decisions have been made after seeking the employees’

feedback.

Secondly, the organisations should promote sensitive and fair treatment of all

employees in general and employees affected by redundancy in particular. This

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can be done by appointing specialist staff for consultations, providing a channel

for the support and advice of all affected employees, guiding employees about

their future course of action and helping them re-enter their professional lives by

re-drafting their CVs and discussing future employment options. Not only will

this prove of immense value to the affected employees, but would also display a

positive message to the remaining employees; that the organisation cares about

their future and would not let leave them in the lurch if such a time was to come

to them. Again, such an action would be incorporating soft HRM policies, and

would not only make the employees happier, but would inevitable increase their

levels of loyalty and motivation towards their organisation. Similarly, the levels

of communication between the employees and management should be

regularised, and should look to include all important aspects the organisation

might be facing in the future, such as redundancies. If communication is strong,

one can observe a positive impact on the motivation level of surviving

employees. Regular meetings with employees increase the sense of ownership;

the employees feel owned and informed. The organisations in the UK do follow

this while in Pakistan it is not in practice. If organisations in Pakistan try to

arrange meetings and boost communication with their employees, this can help

the organisation to increase the capabilities of their employees as well as

enhance the application of soft HRM policies.

Next, the Pakistani organisations should work on considering the various

available alternatives to redundancy, such as offering reduced hours, reduced

pay, unpaid leave, sabbatical and retraining their employees. Not only would

this step take them closer to implementing soft HRM policies in their

organisations, but would also ensure employee retention and loyalty. If the

organisations in Pakistan try to offer these options to their employees before

bluntly dismissing them, this can help the organisation to sustain the morale of

all employees. Some voluntary redundancy packages should also be introduced

in order to sift out those employees who are more willing to be made redundant,

and to avoid making those employees redundant who do not wish to be so.

Individual as well as collective consultations are a must for all organisations. All

concerned and effected employees should be informed well before time.

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Minutes of meeting and records should be maintained for all these proceedings

as part of soft HRM policies. Similarly, pools should be developed from which

employees should be selected for redundancies. The organisations in UK are

found well familiar with the different pools and pool wise individuals embarked

for redundancy. These organisations do consider the factors like length of

service, attendance records, disciplinary records, skills competencies and

qualifications, work experience and performance records before designing their

redundancy decisions. In the same way, Pakistani organisations should also

develop a Points-based scoring system in which relative scoring criteria are

observed, and discrimination in any way is avoided. In addition, no such

centralised regulatory body is present in Pakistan to which all organisations are

accountable, and to which they have to give written notification before making

redundancies. Such bodies need to be set up in order to safeguard the interests

of the employees. To apply soft HRM policies, Pakistan needs to have well

defined rules, regulations and policies in favour of employees as well as

organisations; otherwise the efficiency level of both the employees and the

organisations will keep on decreasing.

Once all these steps have been ensured by Pakistani organisations, only then

can they hope to compete with the standards set by the UK organisations as far

as soft HRM is concerned. This study opens up the possibility of further

research to identify the flaws in the system that prevent or impede the

application of soft HRM policies in organisations. These flaws can consider

factors such as the government, the social setup, the economic conditions, etc.

also, this study will prove to be an invaluable addition to the very limited

literature on the HRM currently being practiced in Pakistan.

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CHAPTER – 6 RECOMMENDATIONS

The research analysis has led the researcher to compare and contrast various

soft HRM policies, particularly in relevance to Redundancy, between the

selected UK and Pakistani organisations. The results have led the researcher to

believe that although such policies are being utilised and practiced to a great

extent as far as the UK organisations are concerned, quite a bit appears to be

lacking as far as their Pakistani counterparts are concerned. Out of a total of 35

questions relating to soft HRM and Headcount Reduction asked of the four

companies, i.e. T-Mobile and DHL from the UK and Mobilink and Ufone from

Pakistan, the companies replied positively and negatively (where positive

denotes compliance with HRM soft policies in Headcount reduction, and

Negative implies non-conformity with such policies) as follows:

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

T-MOBILE 32 3

DHL 32 3

MOBILINK 18 17

UFONE 11 24

Hence it is clear that the Pakistani organisations are lacking in most aspects of

soft HRM. As part of the Research, it was intended that certain

recommendations be provided to Pakistani organisations in order for them to

catch up with the Western standards of soft HRM. The researcher feels that the

Pakistani organisations need to focus on the following aspects of soft HRM:

• The Pakistani organisations should make it a policy to inform their

employees that Redundancy might be under consideration by the

organisation, in order for the employees to be aware of the grim financial

situation ahead. This concerns the ‘policies of mutuality’ so emphasized

upon by all leading experts of soft HRM.

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• A regular meeting system should be reinstated in the Pakistani

organisations where can employees discuss the possible adverse effects

of financial crisis, in order to further strengthen the company’s policies of

mutuality.

• Although Mobilibk did say that it considers alternatives to Redundancy,

Ufone replied negatively, and hence the researcher deems it appropriate

to recommend that Pakistani organisations should consider at least the

common alternatives to redundancy that are considered in the west, such

as reduced work hours, reduced pay, unpaid leave, sabbatical and

retraining before resorting to reduction.

• The researcher recommends that when Consultations are carried out

prior to redundancy, the Pakistani organisations should include such

topics as reasons for redundancy, why and how individuals have been

selected for redundancies, and also if some possible alternative work

options that are offered by the organisations.

• In the UK, a law is in place that collective consultations should start 90

days beforehand for redundancy dismissals of 100 or more employees

and 30 days before notifications of redundancies for 20-99 employees,

and this law is observed by the UK organisations included in the

research. The researcher recommends that such laws should be put in

place for Pakistani organisations as well so that they are more

accountable for their actions.

• Furthermore all Pakistani organisations are advised to wait for the

completion of consultations before issuing the notice of dismissal to the

concerned employees, as this is the rule generally followed in the West,

and it subscribes to the soft policies of HRM.

• The researcher recommends that the Pakistani organisations must

identify the pools and pool wise individual employees earmarked for

redundancy, before achieving the desired results of redundancy.

• In addition, the researcher feels that the Pakistani organisations must

develop a points system which scores each employee against the

relevant criteria. The method of relative scoring is found in the UK

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organisations, and should be adopted by the Pakistani organisations in

order to adhere to soft HRM.

• An important recommendation for the Pakistani organisations is the

setting up of a regulatory body, such as the BERR in the UK. At present

they do not have any policy to inform any regulatory body about their

dismissals and huge redundancy plans. A centralised body should be set

up to which all organisations can be accountable when it comes to

redundancy.

• The researcher feels that Pakistani organisations must take into account

laws relating to trade-unions, part-time status, pregnancy or maternity

status, marital status, disability, race or religion before the application of

redundancy plans so as to avoid unfair dismissals.

• Pakistani organisations must give the opportunity to employees to appeal

against their selection for redundancy. At present Employees are not

given any right of appeal against their dismissal or if they are made

redundant forcefully.

• Furthermore it is recommended by the researcher that Pakistani

organisations must introduce a policy of offering suitable alternative work

to the redundant employees within the organisation itself, as is seen to

be done in the West.

• In addition, some compulsory factors must be kept in mind by the

Pakistani organisations before arriving at headcount reduction. These

factors can include job performance, disciplinary records, job role, age,

and responsibility level.

• It is recommended that Pakistani organisations should make it a policy to

give additional financial benefit to the employees who are becoming a

victim of the redundancy plan; as such an approach is part of soft HRM

policies being exercised in the UK.

• The Pakistani organisations should introduce support centres for affected

employees so that the redundant employees know where they should

head for support and advice.

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• The researcher recommends that the Pakistani organisations should

have helpful measures in place for the employees made redundant,

which include the opportunity for employees to refresh their interview

skills, redraft CVs and reply effectively to job advertisements.

• Furthermore, the Pakistani organisations must have a system of

providing counselling by specialist consultants or others, for the sensitive

treatment of those who undergo reduction.

• Pakistani organisations must improve the communication channels

between managers and employees, and must communicate and discuss

the reasons, methods and procedures and plans of redundancies in a

very clear, effective and efficient manner.

• Pakistani organisations must conduct individual discussions with

remaining key workers to reassure them of their importance and

employment prospects.

• In addition, Pakistani organisations should introduce a policy to re-induct

their laid-off employees.

To sum up, a major reformation of the HRM policies being practiced in Pakistan

needs to take place, with a priority to be given to the introduction of soft HRM

policies particularly in relation to Headcount reduction, as is being practiced by

the UK organisations. Rights of employees, and not just the good of the

organisation, should be kept in mind. Rigid and hard policies that are totally

devoid of all traces of soft HRM should be avoided. The policies in the UK

should be treated as a benchmark, and new policies should be made keeping

this benchmark in mind. Not only can this enable the Pakistani organisations to

maintain a high level of loyalty and motivation level among their employees, but

also to improve their overall productivity, as a motivated and satisfied workforce

is bound to be an asset to any organisation.

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SELF REFLECTION When reflecting on the process of writing my dissertation, I am inclined to say

that I have gained invaluably from this experience, not just as a researcher, but

as a prospective member of any such organisation that I have had the

opportunity to include in my research. To start with, my interest in the topic

arose when I came to the UK to study, and was quite taken aback by the vast

amount of emphasis placed on the soft side of HRM in almost all organisations I

came into contact with; which was a new phenomenon for me, coming from a

country where employees were treated with a hard hand as a norm. I therefore

welcomed the opportunity to study this phenomenon in greater depth, whereby

enhancing my knowledge of how the developed world differs from the third

world countries in this respect.

The amount of practical research I undertook in order to be better informed

about the topic of study was invaluable, as I came into contact with

professionals from some of the most well-known organisations of both the UK

and Pakistan, and was able to not only ask them questions, but also to observe

them conducting their work. The theoretical study involved, on the other hand,

has been extremely beneficial in grounding me thoroughly about soft HRM and

its policies, as well as the perspectives of leading experts in the field. Such

knowledge enabled me to link the findings of my practical study with the

theoretical framework of soft HRM and Redundancy to give the research more

credibility.

Although the process of learning is never-ending, I can claim with confidence

that through this opportunity of writing my dissertation, not only did I gain the

research skills and experiences I was looking to gain, and gather a sound and

deep understanding of the theory of soft HRM, I also accumulated quite a lot of

useful techniques and ideas that I can utilise once I join the HR industry as a

professional, especially in Pakistan, where almost all organisations have room

for incorporating the recommendations I have made as an outcome of my

research.

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REFERENCES Ackroyd, S., Batt, R., Thompson, P. & Tolbert, P.S. (2006) The Oxford Handbook of Work & Organisation. 2nd edn. New York: Oxford University Press. Aftab, F. (2007). An exploratory studies of HRD: A study focusing on the organisations of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Wah Region in Pakistan. International review of Business Research papers 3, no. 3: pp. 36-55. Armstrong, M. (2000) Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. 2nd edn. London: Kogan Page Publishers Armstrong, M. (2003) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. (9th edn). London: Kogan Page Publishers. Armstrong, M. (2006) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. (10th edn). London: Kogan Page Publishers. Barnham, K. Fraser, J. and Heath, L. (1988) Management for the Future, Ashridge Management Research Group and the Foundation for Management Education. Beer, M., Walton, R., & Spector, B., (1984). Managing Human Assets. New York: Free Press. BIS. (2009). Redundancy Consultation & Notification: Guidance. [online] Available at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/employment-legislation/employment-guidance/page13852.html. [Accessed: 25 July, 2009]. Budhwani, N. (2008): The role of HRD in Pakistan: An overview.

Budhwar, P.S. & Debrah, Y.A. (2004) Human Resource Management in Developing Countries. UK: Routledge. CIPD. (2009). Redundancy. [Online] Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/emplaw/redundancy/redundancy.htm. [Accessed: 21 July, 2009]. Clark, H., Chandler, J. & Barry, J. (1994) Organizations and Identities: Text and Readings in Organizational Behaviour. London: Cengage Learning EMEA. Cooper, D.R. & Schindler, P.S. (2003) Business Research Methods. 8th edn. Pennsylvania: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Cooper, D.R. & Schindler, P.S. (2005) Business Research Methods. 9th edn. Pennsylvania: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

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http://www

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Cornelius, N. (2001) Human Resource Management: A Managerial Perspective. 2nd edn. London: Thompson Learning EMEA. Debrah, Y.A., Smith, I.G. (2000), "Introduction: globalization and the changing patterns of employment", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 21 No.6, pp.446-51. Emory, W. & Cooper, D.R. (1995) Business Research Methods. 5th edn. California: Irwin. Grant, R.M. (1991), "The resource-based theory of competitive advantage: implications for strategy formulation", California Management Review,, Vol. 33 pp.114-35. Gratton, L. (1999) Strategic human resource management: corporate rhetoric and human reality. New York: Oxford University Press. Guest, D., 1987. Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations. Journal of Management Studies. 24(5) pp. 503- 521. Guest, D.E. (1999), "Human resource management – the workers' verdict", Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 9 No.3, pp.5-26. Hisrich, R.D. (2009) International Entrepreneurship: Starting, Developing, and Managing a Global Venture. London: SAGE. Hussain, I. (1999) ‘Democracy in Doldrums’, Dawn Karachi. [online] Available at: http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/991016.htm. [Accessed: 30 July, 2009]. Hyman, J., & Mason, B., (1995). Managing Employee Involvement and Participation. London: Sage publishers. IBCN. (2005). How do Hofstede's Dimensions correlate with the World's Religions? [online] Available at: http://www.internationalbusinesscenter.org/international_newsletter/volume2_issue1.htm. [Accessed: 27 July, 2009]. Kane, B., Crawford, J., Grant, D. (1999), "Barriers to effective HRM". International Journal of Manpower. 20(8). pp.494-515. Kearns, P. (2005) Evaluating the ROI from Learning: How to develop value-based training. UK: CIPD. Khilji, S.E. (1995) ‘International Human Resource Management in Pakistan’, Un-published M-Phil Thesis. University of Cambridge. Khilji, S.E. (1999) ‘An Empirical Study of HRM in Pakistan’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.

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Khilji, S.E. (2001) Human resource management in Pakistan. In Budhwar, P. and Debrah, Y.A. (Eds.) Human resource management in developing countries London: Routledge. Kohn, T.O. & Austin, J.E. (1990). Strategic Management in Developing Countries. New York: Free Press. Legge, K., (1995). Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Legge, K. (1998), "The morality of HRM", in Mabey, C., Skinner, D., Clark, T. (Eds),Experiencing Human Resource Management, Sage, London. Legge, K., (2005). ‘Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities’. (10th anniversary edn). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Mabey, C., Salaman, G. & Storey, J. (1998) Human Resource Management: A Strategic Introduction. 2nd edn. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Mahmood, S., (2006). Good Governance Reforms Agenda in Pakistan: Current Challenges. New York: Nova Publishers. McLean, G.N., Kuo, M.H., Budhwani, N. & Yamnill, S. (2006). In Poell, R.F. (Ed) Seventh International Conference on HRD Research & Practice Across Europe, held in Tilbury, Netherlans, 22-24 may. Tilburg, Netherlands: Tilburg University, Department of HR Studies. Poole, M., (1999). Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management. Oxford: Routledge. Pro Pakistani. (2009). Downsizing, Right Sizing or Team Sizing?. [online] Available at: http://propakistani.pk/2009/07/03/downsizing-or-rightsizing-or-team-sizing/. [Accessed: 30 July, 2009]. Qureshi, Z.I. (1995). ‘Management in South Asia’, in Saunders, D.M. and Kanungo, R.N. (eds) New Approaches to Employee Management. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Rowley, C. (1998) Human resource management in the Asia Pacific region: convergence questioned. London: Routledge. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2007) Research Methods for Business Students. 4th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education. Schuler, R.S. & Jackson, S.E. (2007) Strategic Human Resource Management. 2nd edn. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

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Spradley, J. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston Storey, J. (1989). New Perspectives on Human Resource Management. London: Cengage Learning EMEA. Storey, J. (2001) ‘Human Resource management today: an assessment’, in J. Storey (ed) Human Resource management: A Critical text. London: Thompson learning. Storey, J. (2007). Human Resource Management: A Critical text. 7th edn. London: Cengage Learning EMEA. Tropman, J.E., & McAdams, J.L. (2001). The Compensation Solution: How to Develop an Employee-driven Rewards System. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. Wilson, J.P., (2005). Human Resource Development: Learning and Training for Individuals and Organizations. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Walton, R.E., (1985). From control to commitment in the workplace. Harvard Business Review. 63 (2) pp.77-84.

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QUESTIONNAIRE (APPENDIX ‘A’)

1. To what extent are HR professionals involved in the decision making process of redundancy?

Full involvement Minor involvement No involvement at all

2. Do you maintain a standing redundancy plan to cater for effective recession related issues especially like Headcount Reduction whenever there is a need to do so?

Yes No

3. As an essential part of your standing redundancy plan, do you maintain and also regularly update the list of the employees that you think should be made redundant?

Yes Yes Preliminary No

4. Before considering redundancies do you inform your employees, anticipating the difficult financial conditions likely to be encountered?

Yes Discretionary No

5. Do you have a system of arranging regular meetings with your employees so as to discuss the situation, its adverse financial effects and some viable measures that could help in avoiding the redundancies?


6. Do you consider all other available alternatives as shown below before finally proceeding with the implementation of your Headcount Reduction?

• Reduced hours • Reduced pay • Unpaid leave • Sabbatical • Retraining

Yes Not Sure No

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7. Do redundancies have the chances to become avoidable after giving

thorough consideration to the other available alternatives / options?

Yes Not Sure No

8. Do you offer a voluntary redundancy package and seek willing redundancy volunteers?

Yes No

9. What type of consultation do you carry out during the process of redundancy?

Individual Collective

10. In your consultations, do you include the following?

- the reason for the redundancy dismissals - why and how individuals have been selected - possible ways of avoiding redundancy - possible alternative work

Yes No

11. Do Collective consultations start at least 90 days beforehand for redundancy dismissals of 100 or more employees, and at least 30 days before notification of redundancies for 20–99 employees?

Yes No

12. Is your collective consultation completed before notice of dismissal is given to any of the employees concerned?

Yes No

13. In order to achieve the desired results from the redundancy, you are expected to be well familiar with the different pools and to identify pool wise individuals earmarked for redundancy. Have you elaborately covered this aspect in the relevant redundancy procedure?

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Yes No

14. Do you base your selection on objective criteria which may include the following?

length of service

attendance records

disciplinary records

skills, competencies and qualifications

work experience

performance records If other criteria are used, please specify.

15. Do you use ‘last in, first out’ (LIFO) as your method of selection?

Yes No

16. Is your selection procedure based on a points system which each employee scores against the relevant criteria?

Yes No

17. Do you take care in the choice and application of the criteria to avoid factors which may be discriminatory on any ground?

Yes No

18. Do you give at least 90 days written notification to BERR (Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reforms) if 100 or more employees are to be made redundant, and at least 30 days for 20 to 99 employees?

Yes No

19. When selecting employees for dismissal, do you observe the laws relating to unfair dismissal, as in the following cases? - trade union membership (or non-membership) - part-time status

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- pregnancy or maternity-related reasons - sex, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, race or religion

Yes No

20. Do you give the opportunity to employees to appeal against their selection for redundancy?


21. Do you consider suitable alternative work throughout the organization?

Yes No

22. Do you give employees paid time off to look for work during the final notice period?

Yes No

23. In case of compulsory redundancy, what are the important contributing factors to be kept in mind while arriving at Headcount Reduction?

Job Performance Disciplinary Record Job Role

Age Responsibility level

24. Do you have any consideration to offer some additional financial benefits to the redundant employees over and above the statutory redundancy pay?

Yes No

25. Do you offer any other kind of support to all those who are made redundant?

Yes No

26. Do you train your managers to handle redundancies with sympathy and clarity?

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Yes No

27. Do you ensure that people know where to go for further advice or support?

Yes No

28. Does your redundancy program enable employees to refresh their interview skills, redraft CVs and reply effectively to job advertisements?

Yes No

29. Do you provide counselling by specialist consultants or others?

Yes No

30. Do you ensure the fair and sensitive treatment of employees who are losing their jobs?

Yes No

31. Do you manage redundancies legally and in a way that minimizes the adverse impact both on those who lose their jobs and on the ‘survivors’?

Yes No

32. Do you implement communication strategies to ensure that everyone in the organization has the correct information about the reasons for redundancies?

Yes No

33. Do the relations between the management and the left over employees get adversely affected by the redundancy?

Yes Not Sure No

34. Do you conduct individual discussions with remaining key workers to reassure them of their importance and employment prospects?

Yes No

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35. Would you prefer to re-induct the redundant employees instead of

carrying out fresh recruitment in case the company regains its financial strength?

Fresh recruitment

Redundant employees

Either of the above mentioned two

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COMPARISON TABLE APPENDIX ‘B’

Questions T-Mobile (UK)

DHL (UK)

Mobilink (Pakistan)

Ufone (Pakistan)

1. To what extent are HR professionals involved in the decision making process of redundancy?

1 1 1 1

2. Do you maintain a standing redundancy plan to cater for effective recession related issues especially like Headcount Reduction whenever there is a need to do so?

0 0 0 0

3. As an essential part of your standing redundancy plan, do you maintain and also regularly update the list of the employees that you think should be made redundant?

- - - -

4. Before considering redundancies do you inform your employees, anticipating the difficult financial conditions likely to be encountered?

1 1 0 0

5. Do you have a system of arranging regular meetings with your employees so as to discuss the situation, its adverse financial effects and some viable measures that could help in avoiding the redundancies?

1 1 0 0

6. Do you consider all other available alternatives as shown below before finally proceeding with the implementation of your Headcount Reduction?

1 1 1 0

7. Do redundancies have the chances to become avoidable after giving thorough consideration to the other available alternatives / options?

1 1 1 0

8. Do you offer a voluntary redundancy package and seek willing redundancy volunteers?

1. On

some

Occasions

1. On

some

Occasion

s

1 1

9. What type of consultation do you carry out during the process of redundancy?

Individual

&

Collective

Individual

&

Collectiv

e

1 1

10. In your consultations, do you include the following?

- the reason for the redundancy dismissals - why and how individuals have been selected - possible ways of avoiding redundancy - possible alternative work

1 1 1 0

11. Do Collective consultations start at least 90 days beforehand for redundancy dismissals of 100 or more employees, and at least 30 days before

1 1 0 0

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notification of redundancies for 20–99 employees? 12. Is your collective consultation completed before notice of dismissal is given to any of the employees concerned?

1 1 1 0

13. In order to achieve the desired results from the redundancy, you are expected to be well familiar with the different pools and to identify pool wise individuals earmarked for redundancy. Have you elaborately covered this aspect in the relevant redundancy procedure?

1 1 0 0

14. Do you base your selection on objective criteria which may include the following?

• length of service • attendance records • disciplinary records • skills, competencies and qualifications • work experience • performance records

If other criteria are used, please specify.

1 1 1 1

15. Do you use ‘last in, first out’ (LIFO) as your method of selection?

0 0 0 0

16. Is your selection procedure based on a points system which each employee scores against the relevant criteria?

1 1 0 0

17. Do you take care in the choice and application of the criteria to avoid factors which may be discriminatory on any ground?

1 1 1 1

18. Do you give at least 90 days written notification to BERR (Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reforms) if 100 or more employees are to be made redundant, and at least 30 days for 20 to 99 employees?

1 1 0 0

19. When selecting employees for dismissal, do you observe the laws relating to unfair dismissal, as in the following cases? • trade union membership (or non-membership) • part-time status • pregnancy or maternity-related reasons • sex, sexual orientation, marital status, disability

race or religion

1 1 0 1

20. Do you give the opportunity to employees to appeal against their selection for redundancy?

1 1 0 1

21. Do you consider suitable alternative work throughout the organization?

1 1 0 0

22. Do you give employees paid time off to look for 1 1 1 1

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work during the final notice period? 23. In case of compulsory redundancy, what are the important contributing factors to be kept in mind while arriving at Headcount Reduction? - Job Performance - Disciplinary Record - Job Role - Age - Responsibility level

1 1 0 0

24. Do you have any consideration to offer some additional financial benefits to the redundant employees over and above the statutory redundancy pay?

1 1 1 0

25. Do you offer any other kind of support to all those who are made redundant?

1 1 1 0

26. Do you train your managers to handle redundancies with sympathy and clarity?

1 1 1 1

27. Do you ensure that people know where to go for further advice or support?

1 1 0 0

28. Does your redundancy program enable employees to refresh their interview skills, redraft CVs and reply effectively to job advertisements?

1 1 0 0

29. Do you provide counselling by specialist consultants or others?

0 1 0 0

30. Do you ensure the fair and sensitive treatment of employees who are losing their jobs?

1 1 1 1

31. Do you manage redundancies legally and in a way that minimizes the adverse impact both on those who lose their jobs and on the ‘survivors’?

1 1 1 1

32. Do you implement communication strategies to ensure that everyone in the organization has the correct information about the reasons for redundancies?

1 1 1 0

33. Do the relations between the management and the left over employees get adversely affected by the redundancy?

1 0 1 1

34. Do you conduct individual discussions with remaining key workers to reassure them of their importance and employment prospects?

1 1 0 0

35. Would you prefer to re-induct the redundant employees instead of carrying out fresh recruitment in case the company regains its financial strength?

• Fresh recruitment • Redundant employees • Either of the above mentioned two

1 1 0 0

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REQUEST FOR INTERVIEW APPENDIX ‘C’ To, Mr. Salman Shakir M/s. 18 Bentley Road

Slough, Berkshire SL1 5BD United Kingdom. Tel: 0044-1628 666 875

0044-7525 440 286 Email: [email protected] Subject: Request for Interview Dear I am currently a postgraduate student of M.A. Human Resource Management & Employment Relations at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. As an essential part of my course programme, I am expected to write a dissertation on a topic which reads as “How can the Soft HRM approach being implemented in the UK be applied to Pakistani organisations to allow it to them to handle recession-related activities like Headcount Reduction in an effective manner”? This being a research topic, I need to carry out a detailed survey in order to arrive at the satisfactory completion of the research report and for further presentation to the dissertation supervisor, who is based in the university and constantly monitoring my progress. The topic, which I have selected for the dissertation is on a human resource related issue, relevant to the human resource systems both in Pakistan as well as UK. In order to carry out the survey, I most genuinely feel that your useful contribution in the form of interview will be of immense value for the compilation of this project, which will be ultimately assessed as part of my course performance. I also take the privilege to submit that all the information gathered in this regard will be in the form of academic report and will not be shared with anyone without your prior approval. The Ethics Protocol Number allotted to me for this project is BS/P/315-08. In view of the position explained above, you are requested to kindly grant me an opportunity for an interview on some suitable date and time, suiting your convenience, which I shall highly appreciate. Thanking you for your cooperation. Yours sincerely Mr. Salman Shakir

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APPENDIX ‘D’

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APPENDIX ‘E’

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APPENDIX ‘F’

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APPENDIX ‘G’

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APPENDIX ‘H’

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APPENDIX ‘H’ (CONT’D)

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DISSERTATION PROPOSAL APPENDIX ‘J’

Comparison of Soft HRM Policies between UK & Pakistani organizations

HRM in the UK is a well-established and documented area. All major

companies have well-structured HRM policies and procedures. This is not the

case in a third-world country like Pakistan, where scarce HRM strategies exist

and are not implemented in an efficient manner; where they are in use,

emphasis is placed on the hard side of HRM rather than the soft side.

Organisations are focussed on generating productivity and treat labour as a

resource much as any other resource, and not as an asset. Although HRM in

any organisation is of vital importance as it is, its significance is doubled during

tough economic times, as we can observe during the current recession. Many

major companies have had to downsize and job cuts are the order of the day for

most businesses. HRM activities like Headcount reduction gain centre stage in

organisations. Studying HRM from this perspective is not only current, because

of the economic crisis and the subsequent HRM roles, but also necessary to

generate a more structured approach to HRM in countries like Pakistan, where

this area is not considered to be of pivotal importance in most companies.

Headcount Reduction has to be coupled with soft HRM techniques if the

workers in any organisation are to remain satisfied and committed to the well-

being of the organisation, and deliver an acceptable work performance level.

The relationship between soft HRM and employee performance is a less

emphasized area in Pakistan, and such policies that deal with the soft side of

HRM are not put in place. The economic crisis is global, and my interest in

studying the HRM techniques being applied in the UK and attempting to

infiltrate them into Pakistani organisations stems from the fact that I belong to

Pakistan and would like to see the positive practices being used by HRM in the

UK being applied to organisations in Pakistan, especially in these times of

economic strain where many employees are getting laid-off, and thus require

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even more extensive soft HRM policies to make it easier to handle the

downsizing.

Through my chosen research topic, I would aim to study certain HRM

techniques, particularly Headcount reduction and soft HRM, being used in an

organisation in the UK. Next, I aim to compare and contrast these with the

techniques being employed in a similar Pakistani organisation. This would allow

me to be in a better position to evaluate the various policies and their

effectiveness. Next, I would aim to uncover those weaknesses which exist in the

techniques being used in the Pakistani organisation, and attempt to suggest

ways to give them a more structured approach via my study of the UK

organisation.

The main theoretical work needed for the study would relate to HRM techniques

relevant in the economic recession, particularly Headcount reduction and soft

HRM. As the study involves field-work, most of the findings will have to be

based on that. In the area of soft HRM, the work of Armstrong (2003) provides

valuable insight by focussing on the practical HRM issues and referring to the

works of Truss (1999), who states that hard HRM often overtakes the softer

side of HRM; Storey (1989), who considers soft HRM to treat employees as

“valued assets”, echoing the work of Guest (1987) who considers employees as

means rather than the objects. Walton (1985) mentions the terminology ‘hard’

and ‘soft as’ being used by McGregor (1960) to classify forms of Management

control, and his use of theory X and Y to describe the control types. Walton

(1985) emphasized the link between policies of mutuality and employee

commitment, resulting in greater economic success. According to him, the

greater the soft policies and mutual respect, the higher is the level of

commitment. Legge (1995) indicates more support for hard HRM policies as

opposed to soft ones and noted that policies are adapted to suit the changing

business needs, labelling it “thinking pragmatism”; while Wilson (2005) suggests

that soft HRM entails thinking of the workers as “valuable contributors” to the

organisation, while hard HRM “smacks of tight control”. Poole (1999) quotes

storey (1987, 1992), that hard HRM stresses the “quantitative, the calculative

and the business-strategic aspects of managing the headcount resource”, while

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soft HRM “stresses communication, motivation and leadership”. Thus, as Poole

(1999) states, hard HRM treats labour as a resource, while soft HRM treats it as

a human being. Tropman and McAdams (2001) state that employees should be

treated as “investments rather than costs”, and hence headcount reduction is

more of a quick-fix than a long-term solution; however, in these times of

economic recession, many organisations have to turn to downsizing. Bechet

(2008) points out the use of staffing strategies as critical to the effectiveness of

downsizing by any organisation. The work of Lipsig and Dollarhide (1996)

provides important insight into the process of downsizing, addressing the

human side of the issue as well as the practical side. Tomasko (1987) suggests

suitable alternatives to downsizing, saying that a reduction is counter-productive

to the organisation. Mahmood (2006) provides a good look at downsizing in

Pakistan.

The research design will be a Comparative design, with the level of analysis

being carried out between the HRM departments of cross-cultural organisations,

where the variable is going to be the same, i.e., the standard of soft HRM in

place to handle headcount reduction. The research is qualitative in nature,

generating theory out of research, and thereby the methodology used would be

inductive. The main reason behind the selection of this particular methodology

is its compatibility with such qualitative works of study where research needs to

be carried out in order to bring about certain answers. The HRM policies being

used in both the organisations will be evaluated at length to produce the

relevant conclusions. As opposed to this, the deduction method leads on from

the theory into the findings, and hence would not be the most appropriate

methodology for our chosen topic. Secondly, I would welcome the chance to

gain more experience into this particular field of my interest by undertaking

extensive qualitative research via induction. The epistemological orientation of

the study is interpretivist, whereby the fundamentals of HRM techniques will be

viewed though the perspectives of the concerned managers. The ontological

orientation of the study is constructivist, generating knowledge and learning

from first-hand experience gained carrying out the field-work.

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The main research methods used will be Ethnography, Qualitative interviewing

and collection and analysis of the relevant documents. Direct participant

observation can be used at the UK site as well as the Pakistani site. Most of the

interpretation will be based on conversations, ranging from formal interviews to

informal talks with the concerned participants on each side, i.e., the HRM

managers. Through field-work and direct interaction, a more descriptive, in-

depth and up-to-date account can be gained of the chosen area of study. The

documents relevant to the area of study will also be collected and studied in

detail to gain information. The local perceptions relating to the area of study can

be studied using random interviews. The reason for opting for these methods is

their suitability for the kind of work I am undertaking. Ethnography is a most

effective tool for generating first-hand information. Qualitative interviews will

prove invaluable in generating the answers I need about the various processes

and procedure, and allow me to effectively compare the two different cultures

and their HRM policies. Structured interviews, where both the UK and the

Pakistani counterparts are asked the same questions in order for a more solid

comparison, would be used for the purpose of the study. Observation will

provide insight into the unsaid things and prove to be a useful tool to generate

more specific questions about some procedures that need to be clarified.

Triangulation can be carried out by using audio-tapes to record the participants,

verbal interview and diary writing. The study of relevant documents, again, will

prove of immense help in order to generate the desired information. Analysis of

the documents will provide even more concrete insight into the ways in which

HRM policies are handled at the different organisations. The research will be

longitudinal, studying the HRM techniques being employed both in the UK site

as well as the Pakistani site extensively, and generating the possibility of going

back for further clarifications or suggestions.

As the study involves extensive and consistent field-work, I anticipate certain

difficulties that might arise, mainly involving travel. I would have to undertake a

journey to Pakistan, and conduct field-work there. As Pakistani organisations

are seldom as well structured as their UK counterparts, it might prove time-

consuming and painstaking to obtain the needed information. Secondly, it might

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be difficult to obtain time from the concerned managers for interviews, which are

a vital part of the study. In any interview, it is a cause of concern that some

people do not willingly provide the required information, which might hamper the

collection of the relevant data for the purpose of the study. Aside from the time

and cost constraints, the scope of the work might be limited if the chosen

organisations are not generally representative of the populace. In addition, as

with any qualitative research, the level of detail involved could make it more

complicated to generalize, thereby introducing variations. An opportunity could

arise for me to carry out such research that would enable me to suggest

recommendations for the enhancement of HRM policies in the Pakistani

organisation.

The main tasks needed to complete the study are the selection of the

appropriate organisations, which can be representative of the general work

environment of the country, and which can provide a look at the HRM policies

being used; the formulation of a set of relevant questions that can be used at

the interview sessions in both the countries, enabling me to gain accurate

information from the interviewees and use it to compare and contrast the two

scenarios; the arrangement for the initial and any subsequent interviews in the

UK site, trying to keep the number of interviews required at a minimum, and to

generate the maximum amount of information and observation per interview;

the analysis of the data from the UK site, arriving at a conclusion about the

practices in place; the travel to Pakistan and a repetition of the procedures

carried out at the UK site, and finally, highlighting the shortcomings in the HRM

policies being employed in the Pakistani organisation and the suggestions for

improving the policies.

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DISSERTATION PROPOSAL REFERENCES Armstrong, M., 2006. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Armstrong, M., 2000. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Beer, M. et al. (1985) Human Resource Management: A General Manager’s Perspective, New York: Free Press. Beer, M., Walton, R., & Spector, B., 1984. Managing Human Assets. New York: Free Press Bechet, T., 2008. Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning. 2nd ed. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Grant, R.M. (1991), "The resource-based theory of competitive advantage: implications for strategy formulation", California Management Review,, Vol. 33 pp.114-35. Guest, D., 1987. Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations. Journal of Management Studies. 24(5) pp. 503- 521. Guest, D.E (1989), "Personnel and HRM: can you tell the difference?", Personnel Management,, 21, No.1, pp.48-51. Hyman, J., & Mason, B., 1995. Managing Employee Involvement and Participation. London: Sage publishers. Legge, K., 1978. Power, Innovation and problem-solving in Personnel Management. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill. Legge, K., 1995. Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Lipsig, E., & Dollarhide, M.C., 1996. Downsizing: Law and Practice. Arlington: BNA Books. Mahmood, S., 2006. Good Governance Reforms Agenda in Pakistan: Current Challenges. New York: Nova Publishers. Poole, M., 1999. Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management. Oxford: Routledge Storey, J., 1989. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management. London: Cengage Learning EMEA.

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Storey, J., 1995. Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. Oxford: Routledge. Tomasko, R.M., 1987. Downsizing: Reshaping the Corporation for the Future. New York: AMACOM. Tropman, J.E., & McAdams, J.L., 2001. The Compensation Solution: How to Develop an Employee-driven Rewards System. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. Wilson, J.P., 2005. Human Resource Development: Learning and Training for Individuals and Organizations. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Walton, R.E., 1985. From control to commitment in the workplace. Harvard Business Review. 63 (2) pp.77-84. Walton, R.E., & Lawrence, P.R., 1985. HRM Trends and Challenges. Boston: Harvard University Press.

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