Human resource management and organizational effectiveness

Human Resources

Problems Posed by the Behavior of Richard Painter and Why in order to understand the problems posed by Richard Painter in terms of his specific actions, it is first important to understand the system in which he works, how that system relates to him and his personal enrichment, and the conflicts of interest and moral temptations that the system delivers to someone like Richard Painter and can lead them astray quite easily.

First, the dynamic of Richard's role as Chief Audit Executive, or CAE needs to be fully understood. Richard essentially has a dual role in this position due to the desire on the part of the organization to modernize his position; this dual role essentially consists of two main areas- the performance of internal control audits and financial auditing, and within his position, he holds the potential to be able to receive substantial compensation bonuses and increases based upon favorable results presented in the internal control audits. The staff that conducts these audits, thereby basically holding the keys to additional compensation for Richard, are in fact overseen and guided by Richard- herein a conflict of interest definitely lays because of the potential for abuse by him in his supervisory capacity.

Sure enough, Richard soon began to cut the staff of the internal auditing team, thereby reducing its ability to effectively present information that may be damaging to Richard's potential for promotion and compensation, failing to focus on the all important internal auditing functions, and to make no distinction between financial and internal control audits, thereby basically killing all internal auditing functions and giving him free reign to be able to act as he wished, be compensated and rewarded for achievements, while all the time, his real motives and misdeeds were shaded by the lack of oversight by other staff members. Essentially, Richard was able to report huge cost savings, but these cost savings in fact came at the cost of the protections of the firm- from individuals like Richard himself.

Speaking in human resource terms, the HRM functions that the behavior of Richard presents a problem to be those of Manpower Planning and Employee Motivation, both in some unique ways that will now be discussed.

Regarding Manpower Planning, Richard had cut staff levels to the point where the departments themselves were being compromised. However, it should be noted that this was being done by Richard due to his own unsavory goals and plans, but at any rate, Richard's actions make an important point. When manpower levels are cut to unsafe levels, for whatever the reason, disaster is likely to follow.

Employee Motivation was crushed by Richard both by his policies and his actions. When he cut staff levels as was mentioned before, those who remained in the staff were displeased at being forced into assuming more work volume, suspicious of Richard's motivations in slashing the staff levels, and left to fear for their own positions. Beyond this, once it was apparent that there were ulterior motives for Richard to be doing what he was doing, the staff members became more and more disillusioned with the company because it appeared that Richard was being rewarded for bad behavior, selfishness, and a seemingly endless supply of power that he was free to exploit whenever it suited him.

Overall, what we see in Richard's violations of HRM functions is that key management people hold the power to create, or destroy effectiveness and key work functions in any organizations. Therefore, it is the duty of HR professionals to closely monitor individuals to prevent this from happening.