ASSIGNMENT SAMPLE UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Introduction

People management defines as a part of Human Resource Management which has managed all the processes of optimization and acquisition in an organization in order to achieve organizational success. Nowadays, a lot of people management issues have been addressed which need to improve the strategic planning to maximize the productivity of the workplace as well as increase overall professional growth.

Additionally, effective communication and leadership are highly necessary to mitigate these issues after identifying the HR issues in a proper way through which all the organizations have met the organizational success properly. In this report, people management issues in Sainsbury will be discussed along with the way to increase these HR issues by utilizing specific HR practices.

Description of Sainsbury in the UK

Sainsbury is one of the leading grocery companies in the UK which may help customers by providing good quality grocery items and recognizing living sustainably.

In addition to that the headquarters of Sainsbury is located in London, the UK founded by John James Sainsbury in 1869 as well as Sainsbury has generated £28,993 million in 2020 and a gross profit of £2,016 million according to the annual report of Sainsbury, 2020 (Sainsburys.co.uk. 2021).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT Sainsbury in the UK has invested in self-checkout technology which definitely to improve customer satisfaction, as well as Sainsbury, has launched Digital Nectar in October 2019 with the help of strong customer engagement per week.

Identification of people management issues in Sainsbury in the UK

In order to achieve organizational success, it is necessary that Sainsbury maintain strategic implementation provided by people management through which all the employees have followed the effective implementation in the decision-making process. Additionally, HRM has managed all the administration regarding activities through which HRM has provided significant results which may help to meet the organizational success along with the individual success.

However, there are certain HR issues such as lack of workforce safety and cultural diversity which have an adverse effect on organizational productivity. Moreover, with the help of a proper HR system, the

HR personnel in Sainsbury in the UK has been improved which may definitely help to enhance the high performance of employees to provide maximum quality of groceries items effectively (Koser et al., 2018). http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXTDue to the lack of HR strategic implementation, the performances of the employees of Sainsbury in the UK are not boosted by a high-performance work system as well as lack of equity framework, HR address conflicts among the employees in Sainsbury’s in the UK which also has a negative impact on the performances. The HR issues in Sainsbury may be stated below:-

Lack of Workforce Safety

Workforce safety may be considered necessary after Covid-19 has spread all over the world as well as the Sainsbury business’s success has been dependent on the employee’s performances.

On the other hand, it may be argued that the lack of workforce safety in Sainsbury has not promoted the wellness of the employees and better safety may not equate to better health for the employees performed in Sainsbury. Workforce safety is effective for business activities which increases productivity and helps Sainsbury to hold

its preposition in the UK market with the help of innovations. In addition to that, without workforce safety, Sainsbury may not offer customers quality and distinctive products at competitive prices across general merchandise, financial services, and food, therefore, it is highly necessary that HR properly has addressed these issues and try to resolve these issues.

On the contrary, it may be mentioned that Sainsbury in the UK has adopted the firm’s investment strategies by HR for safety management which facilitates Sainsbury to maintain a sustainable work environment (Lee, 2018).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT Although Sainsbury has implemented a strategy to maintain social distancing with the help of the Smart Shop application, however, within the workplace safety precautions are highly necessary.

Covid-19 has put the employees in Sainsbury on the front line and delivers the foods and grocery items on time as Sainsbury has three main priorities such as keeping the customer safe and helping the communities during the Covid situation.

Therefore, it is highly necessary that all the employees in Sainsbury have to maintain the Covid-19 protocols and guidelines provided by HR through which Sainsbury has effectively produced significant results. Many employees in Sainsbury may not receive standard safety equipment similar to glasses, facemasks, eyewash stations, safety goggles, and PPE kits from the

HR management may be considered an HR issue in Sainsbury and has a negative effect directly on the employees’ performances. Employees have suffered from Covid-19 and other illnesses due to a lack of safety equipment within Sainsbury by inadequate HR strategies or Covid-19 guidelines through which the employee’s satisfaction and proper motivation towards the work gradually have been decreased in order to achieve organizational success on time.

Various health programs have been helping an organization to promote safety among the employees and protect employees’ health, however, the lack of initiatives of health programs by HRM in Sainsbury may be the reason for employee’s dissatisfaction and decreasing demand for productivity (Bundy et al., 2021).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Inadequacies related to workforce safety are not effective for employee morale involved in Sainsbury as employees with illness are not able to devote full concentration to specific tasks in order to increase organizational productivity. Apart from the

HR strategic implementation, effective leader recruitment by the HRM recruitment process is highly essential as effective leaders with the help of their leadership abilities may provide proper motivation among the employees. On the opposite side, it may be argued that lack of workforce safety has increased employee turnover which has a negative impact on the organization productivity during this pandemic situation.

The level of performance by the employees may definitely achieve organizational productivity if organizations’ employees are satisfied with the internal environment of Sainsbury as well as the success of Sainsbury may depend on the good strategy and employee engagement towards the specific tasks.

Cultural Diversity issues

Sainsbury’s competitiveness and growth may depend on the ability of Sainsbury to hold the cultural diversities within the workplace, however, cultural diversity issues may be considered as people management issues in Sainsbury. More specifically,

it may be mentioned that cultural diversity is a major concern in today’s time when employees from different backgrounds have provided their efforts towards the success of specific tasks. Basically, a lack of mutual understanding and effective communication has enhanced cultural diversity issues which may not help to deliver good quality food or grocery items to gain the customers’ loyalty. In addition to that, customers’ loyalty needs to develop to expand the grocery business all over the world, and for this,

effective communication is necessary to implement strategic planning to complete specific tasks on time. Furthermore, effective cross-cultural care has helped to facilitate communication among the employees, on the other hand, it may be argued that lack of cross-culture care has a negative impact on organizational productivity (Shepherd et al., 2019). http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Though cultural diversification in Sainsbury has to improve the creativity of the tasks which has provided a significant result in order to achieve organizational success on time, lack of effective communication cultural diversification has provided negative results.

Due to cultural diversification issues, the employees may not feel the motivations through which the employees show their interest to complete the work regarding activities. Additionally, as a result, employees’ willingness and proper motivations have been enhanced with the help of proper motivation theory provided through which leaders may help to increase communication.

Diversity at the Sainsbury workplace may inspire all the employees to perform to their highest ability which is possible only through effective communication in order to achieve better results. Sainsbury needs to introduce diversity management website management which may help the employees by guiding them about managing beliefs and faith in their colleagues to increase productivity.

Additionally, the help of strong leaders’ commitment to specific tasks and inclusive practices may definitely help to result in effective organizational culture behavior in Sainsbury in the UK through which HRM of Sainsbury effectively manages the organizational activities (Panicker et al., 2018).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Though cultural diversity in an organization may help to improve the organizational performance as a diverse workplace feels happy for the employees through sharing different thoughts and opinions, cultural diversity issues in Sainsbury have provided a negative effect.

Lack of mutual understanding has been increased as the employees from different cultural backgrounds may not understand each other’s culture, as a result, it may decrease the organizational performance.  On the other hand, it may be argued that mutual understanding has been developed by HR’s onboarding process which needs to develop for employees’ better performances in order to achieve Sainsbury’s long-term and short-term goals.

Description of the way to address the people management issues by utilizing specific HR practices

Sainsbury’s is one of the biggest supermarket and retail sectors in the United Kingdom, although the company faces some problems in recent days. On the other hand, it may be asserted that the management of the company faces mainly two problems such as lack of workforce safety and cultural diversity issues.

It is extremely essential for the company to improve people management skills, although it is an integral part of the human resource policies which will create a positive effect on the outcome of the organization and employees (Knies et al., 2020). http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXTFurthermore, it may be opined that it is the primary objective of the company to address these problems and mitigate the problem as soon as possible.

Establishing clear communication in Sainsbury

Sainsbury is one the renowned names in the retail industry of the United Kingdom, although it has been observed that there are some cultural diversity issues that create a negative effect on the performance of the company. The human resource management of the company executes proper policies to mitigate the problem. On a contradictory note,

it may be argued that the company is one of the largest employers in the country and many employees of the company are from outside of the country, due to this reason, Cultural diversity arises in the company which creates a negative impact on the performance of the company. The HR management of the company needs to mitigate the problem by using proper communication skills.

Furthermore, it may be stated that the management of the company needs to communicate in the same language such as English to enhance the cultural bonding among the employees. However, the management of the company needs to maintain a healthy relationship among the employees to reduce the incidents of cultural conflicts.

It has been observed that cultural diversity is the main reason for cultural conflicts, although the human resource management of the company needs to address the problem to mitigate the cultural conflict as soon as possible. On the contrary, it may be asserted that the HR management of the company needs to enhance the communication skills to increase the engagement of the employees which will create a positive effect on the performance of employees (Mazzei et al., 2019).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT From the above, it may be opined that increasing communication skills are one of the proper ways to mitigate cultural diversity and establish harmony in the workplace.

Proper implementation of safety and health policy

In the modern era, the safety and health policy of the company is in poor condition, although it has been observed there are several issues in safety and health policies in the company which create a negative effect on the performance of the organization.

On a contradictory note, it may be argued that due to Covid-19 many employees left the company, although the safety protocols are not properly maintained by the company. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the management of the company to execute proper safety and health policy which will help to mitigate the risk factors of the organization.

Leadership theory is extremely essential to reduce the risk of the employees, although Covid-19 affected the company due to insufficient management of the company, and several employees of the company were affected by the Coronavirus.

On the other hand, it may be affected that the management of the company needs to execute some strategies to maintain the balance in the workplace. The HR management of the company news sanitizes properly in the workplace which is extremely helpful to reduce the Coronavirus.

Moreover, it may be opined that sanitization is an extremely effective way to reduce the spread of Coronavirus, although the sanitization process needs to be done in the company (Khan and Yadav, 2020). http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

The main objective of the management theory is to take care of the employees, although the company needs to use a thermal gun to check the body temperature of the employees which will definitely help to enhance the health and safety issues of employees.

Implementation of leadership skills in HR management

Implementation of leadership is highly significant in the HR management of Sainsbury regarding the safety of the employees. Followed by the impact of Coronavirus the safety measures are highly important for the employees as safety measures are the basic factors which may save the employees from getting infected.

Leadership skills must be implemented by the management as well as the HR manager in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the employees of an organization (Hamid et al., 2020). http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXTAn effective leadership helps in motivating the employees of an organization in providing better performances as well as improving the resource management of Sainsbury.

Furthermore, the leadership skills will ensure the organization regarding following the safety measures which are provided by the management for the safety and wellbeing of the employees. The safety and wellbeing of the employees are significantly important as the safety standards will ensure that the employees are not affected and hence help the organization in the long run in the achievement of the organizational goals.

Furthermore, the cultural diversity of the employees has also been discussed as cultural diversity has also been one of the major challenges in an organization (Neves et al., 2018).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

It may be opined that effective leadership in the organization will aid in the solution of the cultural diversity problem. Effective leadership will allow employees from different cultures to communicate with each other and enhance the productivity of the workforce in an ineffective and efficient way. Different cultures of the workers can be utilized with the help of effective leadership as different cultures have different skill sets which could be beneficial for the organization.

Moreover, it may be opined that cultural diversity will help the workforce in the development of new skill sets in the employees which may be beneficial for the organization in the longer run (Hermawati, 2020). http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXTHence, it may be stated that effective leadership skills in HR management may be used in the development of the skill sets of the employees as well as maintaining safety and increase the cultural diversity of the workforce.

Recommendations

The recommendations to implement the HR strategies and practices in order to mitigate the issues are as follows:-

1. The company should introduce new workplace safety rules and guidelines that will enable the workforce of the company to be self-aware and maintain proper distancing from the customers and team members
2. The company should incorporate various advanced monitoring techniques in order to identify any violation of the safety guidelines while regularly checking the health conditions of the employee
3. Sainsbury should invest in advanced leadership training which has the capacity to enhance the problem-solving abilities along with communication styles of the senior managers in the arena of cultural diversity
4. The cultural diversity problems are to be reported to the specific HR department within a proper time frame and a relevant investigation should be done to check the progress of the case

Limitations

The limitations for implementing the above-mentioned HR policies are to be categorized as insufficient time and huge resources which are crucial for the implementation of the policies. The time duration may be considered an important factor in the mitigation of the people management issues during the time of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus.

However, it may be argued that the implementation of leadership skills in the various levels of management is time-consuming as it will require extensive hours of training and it will also involve various resources such as human and financial resources.

On the other hand, it may be critically stated that the selection of proper trainers of leadership skills and arranging the hefty amount of fees charged by such training programs are major issues behind the successful implementation of the specific HR practices (Yusliza et al., 2017).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Moreover, the proper implementation of the safety procedures in all the stores of the company of Sainsbury may be complex in nature as it will require massive strong monitoring policies and techniques which may induce staff dissatisfaction as a whole. Good quality PPE kits and sanitation facilities are also important which are currently in shortage in global terms.

Furthermore, it may be specifically stated that communication may be a huge barrier among the workforce of the company which may require transparent communication channels among the team that will involve a top to bottom communication.

The limitation may also involve staff cooperation issues which may act as a major hindrance to the successful implementation of the above human resource policies (Olson et al., 2018).http://UMPDFL-15-M MANAGING PEOPLE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Conclusion

According to the above discussion, it may be finally concluded that Sainsbury may need to implement certain policies such as better leadership approaches, and advanced communication strategies in order to mitigate the issues of cultural diversity and workplace safety.

Due to the pandemic, the company has faced challenges in the management of the people in its organization such as staff safety and cultural diversity issues. However, there are certain issues or limitations which may have an impact on the overall implementation of the strategies leading to complexities in the mitigation process.

Moreover, it is crucial for the company of Sainsbury to analyze the issues properly before planning to implement specific HR practices.

References

Bundy, J.T. and Morin, M.M., 2021. Workforce Safety. In Patient Safety and Quality Improvement in Healthcare (pp. 335-352). Springer, Cham.

Hamid, H., Haming, M., Semmaila, B. and Bijang, J., 2020. A mediation effect of new public management on the relationship between intelligence, leadership, HR quality, and performance of local government employees in Indonesia. Management Science Letters, 10(7), pp.1401-1408.

Hermawati, A., 2020. Transglobal leadership approach to sustainable tourism competitiveness at tourism sector-engaged MSMEs through integrated human resource performance and responsible marketing. International Journal of Tourism Cities.

Khan, M.H. and Yadav, H., 2020. Sanitization During and After COVID-19 Pandemic: A Short Review. Transactions of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, pp.1-11.

Knies, E., Leisink, P. and Van De Schoot, R., 2020. People management: developing and testing a measurement scale. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(6), pp.705-737.

Koser, M., Rasool, S.F. and Samma, M., 2018. The high-performance work system is the accelerator of the best fit and integrated HR practices to achieve the goal of productivity: a case of the textile sector in Pakistan. Global Management Journal for Academic & Corporate Studies, 8(1), pp.10-21.

Lee, D., 2018. The Effect of safety management and sustainable activities on sustainable performance: Focusing on suppliers. Sustainability, 10(12), p.4796.

Mazzei, A., Butera, A. and Quaratino, L., 2019. Employee communication for engaging workplaces. Journal of Business Strategy.

Neves, P., Almeida, P. and Velez, M.J., 2018. Reducing intentions to resist future change: Combined effects of commitment‐based HR practices and ethical leadership. Human Resource Management, 57(1), pp.249-261.

Olson, E.M., Slater, S.F., Hult, G.T.M. and Olson, K.M., 2018. The application of human resource management policies within the marketing organization: The impact on business and marketing strategy implementation. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, pp.62-73.

Panicker, A., Agrawal, R.K. and Khandelwal, U., 2018. Inclusive workplace and organizational citizenship behavior. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal.

Sainsburys.co.uk. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/~/media/Files/S/Sainsburys/documents/reports-and-presentations/annual-reports/sainsburys-ar2020.pdf> [Accessed 11 May 2021].

Shepherd, S.M., Willis-Esqueda, C., Newton, D., Sivasubramaniam, D. and Paradies, Y., 2019. The challenge of cultural competence in the workplace: perspectives of healthcare providers. BMC health services research, 19(1), pp.1-11.

Yusliza, M.Y., Othman, N.Z. and Jabbour, C.J.C., 2017. Deciphering the implementation of green human resource management in an emerging economy. Journal of Management Development