� Critically reflect on your problem statement and the topic (EFFECTS OF HRM PRACTICES ON
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE) you have chosen for your individual doctoral study. In what ways can you
limit the negative impact of your own biases, assumptions, and attitudes on your study? How will you
identify your biases?
� Evaluate the ethical considerations on conducting and documenting research as a scholar-practitioner.
Problem Statement
Employee performance is finding out whether a person carries out his assigned task to the letter. It is
done through job evaluation in the designated job station. For effective employee performance, human
resource management is an essential to achieving this intent. The term Human Resource Management is
defined as the overall supervision and monitoring of employees in an organization for the achievement of
the organizational objectives and realization of employee performance (Batt & Colvin, 2011).
It is important to note that employee performance has an impact on the overall performance of an
organization. The implementation of human resource management provides a means through which
employers can monitor the input offered by their employees and provide a basis for the administration of
the workforce needed for the achievement of the organizational goals.
REFLECTING ON BIAS 2
Reflecting on Bias
In the current situation, most organizations are bent towards human resource
management practices that help control employee input to drive employee performance to its
optimum level. However, what most human resource managers don not realize is the impact
these management practices have on employee performance. All management practices have
been realized to be biased at some point to a specific level (Paauwe et al., 2013). Each practice
having its type of bias that affects the employee performance in various ways. The overall
organizational performance is dependent on the identifying these biases and working towards
reducing their impact on employee performance (Batt et al., 2011). Then and only then, would
Human resource management practices have a good bearing on the employee performance and
the overall performance of the organization.
This paper will focus on the different ways to identify these biases, prevention methods
or reduction of their impact on employee performance. By accomplishing that, there will be
formed a moral ground for Human resource practices that have an ethical aspect to managing
individual employee performance. Biases caused by management practices may take different
forms. The different forms of biases include emotional bias, cultural, religious among others.
In an organization that has employees that have a diverse culture, it is given that at
some point there might be a form or cultural biases when it comes to HRM practices. For
instance, during recruitment and hiring or selection of new employees. The Human Resource
REFLECTING ON BIAS 3
Management personnel conducting the exercise might be biased to choose a certain individual
over the other due to the individual’s cultural background. Reason being that they belong to the
same culture or at some point a realization that they share the same beliefs. The selection
process is then said to be biased on the basis of cultural affinity. Therefore, the organization
may find itself hiring persons from the same cultural background. The result of this kind of
action might have its toll on employee performance in a negative way.
Another issue that could form some biasness in the recruitment and selection of
employees is the personal traits and character (Paauwe et al., 2013). A professional employee
ought not to bring his or her personal feelings to work to prevent distractions of any kind that
might affect employee performance. Therefore, some individuals will have personal feelings
about a certain person looking for a position in the organization. The applicant may be chosen
on the basis of character traits and not job qualification, experience, and skills. The chosen
applicant may not even be suited for that profession. Eventually, there will be biases on the side
of the likeness of work and other things that directly affect employee performance. Once
something like this ensues. Employee performance is affected. Sometimes it may be for better
or for worse. However, it is good to keep a professional air of things in a work environment.
Thereby ensuring that employee performance is not affected in any way by some negative
biases due to some HRM practices.
In conclusion, the reason for evaluating and consistently managing employee
performance is to create a sustainable competitive advantage that would last in the long term.
This can be achieved by reducing or eliminating biases due to tome HRM practices. By
ensuring this, Human Resource Managers can steer the overall organizational performance to
REFLECTING ON BIAS 4
meeting the strategic business goals of the organization and making their organization
successful.
References
Batt, R., & Colvin, A. J. (2011). An employment systems approach to turnover: Human
resources practices, quits, dismissals, and performance. Academy of management
Journal, 54(4), 695-717.
Marescaux, E., De Winne, S., & Sels, L. (2012). HR practices and HRM outcomes: The role of
basic need satisfaction. Personnel Review, 42(1), 4-27.
Naidu, S., Pathak, R. D., & Chand, A. (2014). 11. Towards a double triangle model of socially
desirable HRM practices and firm performance in small-island developing states.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management: A Diversity
Perspective, 192.
Paauwe, J. A. A. P., Wright, P. A. T. R. I. C. K., & Guest, D. A. V. I. D. (2013). HRM and
performance: What do we know and where should we go. HRM and performance:
Achievements and challenges, 1-13.
