Investigation of world vision Afghanistan HRM practices and perceptions for improving organizational management and performance
Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №11 - 2019
Authors: Faizi Nadjibulla, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan
Bordiyanu Ilona, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan
Novitskaya Yuliya, Kazakh-American Free University, Kazakhstan
Effective human resource management is one of the major factors
contributing to the effectiveness of the organization. This article summarizes
the research aimed at investigating HRM at World Vision Afghanistan in order to find areas for improvement and develop a HRM model based on leadership
principles. As today HRM is based on the specific technical criteria rather
than on the specific qualities that a person possesses. Also, HRM practices of
staff performance, training, reward systems, and recruitments lack proper
strategies and tactics to attain specified qualified candidate for the
positions. On the other hand, they lack proper staff management in HRM to keep
staff onboard that feels engaged, valued and committed to the organization they
are working in and ready to invested their time and effort to have successes in
their career. We conducted a survey to assess staff behavior and determine how
their goals and beliefs can be used in developing a new model of HRM that would
rest on the principles of leadership [1].
The questionnaire was distributed among the WVA staff. The
interesting point about WVA is that there is no HR department rather World
Vision see the staff as people and their relation with the projects and staff
is seen as a culture so the HR department here is called People and Culture.
The questions of the survey were developed in a way that staff is not directly
asked what they perceive or what they see rather it was designed in a way to
evaluate the overall scenario of how they would react to each specific situation;
their responses were decoded and the tables and comparison were made.
The population of the study consists of 150 WVA staff working in the
WVA in three different zones in a different capacity in Badghis, Herat and Kabul provinces. The main focus of the survey is on the staff working in the
Badghis province where a new model of HRM was implemented.
The analysis unit represents the people and culture (P&C)
departments of WVA selected for this study. This is new concepts and new terms
used in the World Vision organization.
The five-dimensional Likert scale was used for respondents
responses from (1-5) where: (1) not at all important, (2) a slightly important,
(3) important, (4) fairly important, (5) very important. The questionnaire was
presented to around 150 staff in WVA office. Their responses were to use to
design bar graphs, pie charts to compare and contrast the data to evaluate
different scenario and cases in order to observe staff behavior and how they
are going to react to a different situation.
The survey was divided in four parts: the first one is focused on
age, gender, marital status and education and position within the organization.
The question of the study was designed in a way to capture the essence of
leadership and HRM so that then the comparison is done accordingly and the
staff behavior is observed. In addition, questions are translated into Dari
language so that the staff who is not fluent in English can fill them easily,
then the translation reverts back to English and is used in the analysis of the
data [2].
The main aim of this section is to evaluate the difference in staff
behavior depending on the age, track their understanding of the success of the
projects.
The other consideration of the question about gender is to find out
what are the different gender perspectives and determine what value is assigned
by the staff to hiring female personnel of different ages. Also, another factor
to take into account is the marital status of staff and the dependence of the
work performance on employees marital status.
The second part is mainly focused on the work environment and how
the staff behavior can be influenced through paying a higher salary or through
recognition, goal setting and better planning. The main findings of this section
could be used to determine motivation leverages for the staff to work more than
they are assigned to and be more effective team player.
Section three is aimed at determining the role of an organizational
vision and mission statement in shaping personnel behavior and the influence
they make on their overall performance.
The final section of the survey contains open-ended questions aimed
at finding out what will be the general criteria for a successful HRM system in
an organization to identify the suitable team member.
The major survey findings are presented below in the form of graphs
and diagrams.
Like any types of organization, WVA is made of people because this
is the people who work there. The people characteristic in the organization is
what distinguishes the overall organizational culture and thats how an
organization can be formed and the culture of that organization is formed.
Without people, there is no organization- just as, without students, a school
has no existence as a living and functioning organization. Organizations are
strongly influenced by the people that form part of them. Organizations can
take in part of the personality of the people within them and their attitudes,
perceptions and behaviors affect how an organization will operate [3].
As this survey revealed the staff who are working in the WVA is
mainly youth and especially the Community Mobilizers (CMs) who have recently
graduated. The rest of the survey participants are also the one who is mainly
under 50 so overall the 45% of youth are the main CMs who have been under the
study.
Figure 1. Age range of people who have
participated in the survey
Comparing the age range and gender as shown in figure 1, the staff
of WVA is also concluded to be male dominant. This result can be authentic as
well since the majority of staff who are working in the field are male because
the fieldwork especially in the context of Afghanistan it makes more sense that
female cannot work in the field and have female staff in the remote areas far
from office to work with the community, deal with the male and do overall the
operation of the projects. Culturally it is also not acceptable to have female
in the districts besides the security concerns. This contrast however on the
number of the percentage that female staff should be in any types of organization.
As is depicted in Figure 2 77.5% are male and 22.5% are female.
Figure 2. Gender disaggregation of
participants of the survey
Now comparing the gender disaggregation and the age range to the question
that was asked from participants; Which of bellow factors improve your work
satisfaction? from this survey it can be concluded as shown in Figure 3 that
85% of participants said they are more motivated and inspired to feel satisfied
with their work. Even if these people have been paid less, they would prefer
being considered an important people, important team members to achieve the
goal of the project. The remaining 15% only replied to the question that they
are interested to be paid more because of the following assumptions; first of
they are not well acquainted with the goal of the project that they are working
in it and or the goal of the organization to them, secondly the staff are not
being oriented by the principles of leadership and they are not aware of their
part and contribution they are making toward the overall vision of the
organization and project. The conclusion in this scenario is that the staff
behavior is not changing based on the two principles of management and this
paper conclude that the staff behavior these days changes based on the value
the staff are getting and based on their importance as a team member not based
on the amount of money they are receiving or the reward they might receive as
monetary form because according to the survey 85% of the employee has said they
will work overtime if they are valued more not being paid more, more analysis
while reviewing the data is that almost halfway the survey filled almost 100%
people believed they will work more and overtime if they are valued as part of
the vision and or the services they are providing.
Figure 3. Work satisfaction of staff ratio
Another conclusion from this survey surface is that the staff who
are younger are more inclined to be thinking about their career development,
not about short-term benefits in terms of salary, extra benefits, or monetary
rewards since the majority of the participants of the survey are between ages
25-30 so it means these people are in their middle of career and have some
experiences still they are not valuing money rather their concern is building
their career and helping others, on top of that being considered as valuable
person in their organization.
Figure 4. Marital Status of participants
The other analysis of comparing the marital status of participants
as shown in Figure 4 to the overall number of people who have responded being
valued, it can be inferred that the employee is more concerned with being on
the job longer is more important than getting a short-term reward. The reasons
behind this analysis is the job insecurity in Afghanistan context which usually
staff are working for a very short period of time and then they are unemployed
for a longer period of time and since in Afghanistan context usually it is man
who has to provide all the support for the family and usually families are
extended as well and there is only one man working hence overall as stated in
the survey 70% who are married are interested to be valued and have actually
job than temporary rewards and still the remaining 30% who also are single
assumed to have a parents to take care hence still they are willing to have a
sustainable income thus they prefer to have an income rather than just one big
income and then stop. The request of such staff assumed is that they are
willing to be valued as a team member, as a trusted person whom the P&C
department will consider them for hiring with repeating the cumbersome of the
recruitment policies. The suggestion in here would be to handle this challenge
by having a list of the reserved candidate or a database of those staff who
leave or laid off for project completion or some other reasons so that the
P&C department can hire time without spending a lot of budget on the
advertisement and overall in the recruitment process. This way, the staff
caring is actually in practice implemented and those who are already acquainted
with the vision, mission, and principles of WVA can be trusted and hired.
Staff is inaccessible in the remote field to be able to assess them
and sometimes if possible to rewards such hard-working workforce there is not
sufficient budget available to rewards them so how can motivate and inspire
such staff in the absence of budget?
Based on the response of participants to the questionnaire of
question that asked; Was there a time that you had an achievement in your
projector in a team but your supervisor did not admire your good work? in this
survey as shown in the bellow, Figure 5, only 30.8% said yes so it means
overall 69.2% of participant in this survey were appraised and rewarded in one
way or another even if there was shortage of budget still there are ways that
staff can be motivated and inspired.
Figure 5. Budget shortage and ways of
rewarding staff in the field
Comparing the date with the age range of staff, there is a high
chance that staff who are younger can be rewarded in non-monetary ways so the
staff satisfaction is more about just saying a thank you or send a simple
message. Furthermore, in another analysis of comparing the monetary system and
educational level of participants, it can be understood that staff who are
actually bachelor degree holder are 77.5% of overall the survey, only 12.5% are
master and 10% are high school graduate as shown in Figure 6 below, they are
more inclined to be praised and rewarded even by saying a thank you. This
analysis also confers with the aforementioned work satisfaction and this also reveals
the fact that the staff who are educated they are expecting less of the
monetary value and they are even by saying thank you understand the concepts
behind just one thank you. In the Afghanistan context, its rarely the concepts
that the people who are uneducated understand what a simple message means. This
also can be other reasons that the leadership qualities that participants can
be thought in higher education are also valuable in here too. It means that
staff if being more inspired and trained they will be more contentment and
value the relation and people than only money, thus the HRM model suggested
based in the principle of leadership can be very useful in the context where
there are many more educated people and or the staff are capacitated as such
that they understand they are gratitude and grateful and in nature they value
people and relationship than short term rewards.
Figure 6. Educational Level of participants
Is there a way to
influence field staff and lead them remotely to behave well, have productivity
and develop their self-confidence to endorse them to develop their own work
environment?
In relation to the above evolution, there is a chance to influence
staff and motivate them to feel being parts of the team and actually, they are
contributing to the overall project and organization. Refereeing to the Figure
7, participants were asked, importance of having a personal specific target in
mind the response was a little surprising since worker themselves says if
staff have a personal specific goals and career aspiration that relate to the
project then there is a high chance that such staff will be motivated and
inspired by none monetary forms such as explanation of goals of the project and
organization with them. In this survey, 50% of overall participants said that
it is very important to them to have a specific goal in life and have a vision
to where they want to go. This conclusion is also true since the majority of
participants in this survey are young hence they are in their first career
stage and if they are given the chance they will for sure be more successful.
This section concludes that the HR team should be cautious to recruit those
staff that has a career aspiration otherwise the project might fail based on
the results of this survey.
In another analysis of the data collected from participants which
they were asked, the same as above questions like the figure 10 about rating
the importance of having organization goal and explained to the overall people
and participants, the responded said almost 52.5%, as reflected in the Figure 8
below, that the organizational should have a specific vision, goal, and mission
that portray how the organization want to reach there. This way, as the model
suggested, staff who have vision will be joining such organization because they
are not valuing the money only rather they value the contribution they make and
how they are treated in such organization. If an organization does not have a
specific vision then the people who are aimless will join for temporary and
they will not for sure be committed as other research revealed also the staff
commitment can improve by giving the value and how the importance the staff are
making toward the overall vision of the organization. Moreover, the staff who
have a specific vision can be by P&C department hired since they are more
inspired to be working in their position more passionately than those who do
not know what they are doing. A quote from staff from the survey reveals that
staff who are actually having a similar vision to the organization they believe
they are actually working toward achieving their own personal goals and dreams,
just it turns out that they are paid by WVA in order to achieve their personal
goals. This also reveals that fact that staff are more inspired and can be more
motivated if they are given the chance to be able to contribute toward the
overall vision of the organization and how they are valued than being paid
more.
Figure 7. Importance of having
organizational goals written and explained to staff
Is the workforce
interested in leadership qualities in their team? Or people prefer to be distinguished
individually rather than in a team?
Two different questions were asked by staff with slide variations of
the wording to identify what will be the behavior of staff in a scenario a. if
the staff was kept accountable for the poor performance of overall the team?
Figure 9 shows the scenario a that 32.5% of staff believes its less important
that if penalty assigned to them, they are seeing themselves as parts of the
group and still they are feeling to be accountable. Remaining 12.5% said it is
very important that the penalty is assigned only to one person who has
performed poorly. This proves that the staff is more parts of a team them for
each other should be accountable. Its teamwork the staff response shows so
everyone is accountable and if there is a poor performance then all staff are
responsible for the poor performance.
Figure 8. Penalty assign to one specific
team member importance
On top of that, staff response to individual work has been compared
and this shows it is the same as if the staff is working individually or
working in a team. The same staff believes 27.5% of the survey participants
believe that its less important if the penalty assigned to them. This gives two
conclusions as peer bellow figure 10;
If staff are not rewarded then oppositely they are punished it is
not important so again this proves that the two management principles which are
rewards and punishment dont work for the 21st-century employee.
If staff are performance evaluated and if they found there is a
fault in the team they are not important if been asked for the poor performance
because they see themselves part of the team and it is okay if they are
accounted no other people.
Figure 9. Penalty assigned to individual
poor performance
Does the implementation
of leadership models in project management of construction projects helps have
a major achievement for the project success and organization visibility?
The survey results also show that the staff who are planned their
activities can be more successful since they are more focused and their
activities are planned. On the other hand, this is a way to help each part of
the team understand that they are parts of a bigger picture. The survey results
as shown in below figure 11 say that 65% of participants agree that if their
activities are planned individually then they will prefer to work on the team.
In addition, 35% rest believes if they have general activities then they could
be performing well since they can go through the process of norming, forming
and performing stages of a team.
Figure 10. Plans and activities for each
staff
Since the employee is
motivated and inspired for improvement and development, do supervisors observed
major long term impact rather than rewards or punishment in subordinates?
Figure 11. Reasons behind staff motivation
From figure 12 we can conclude that almost half of the participants
prefer to work in a team if they can see the immediate results of their
activities. Overall this survey shows 52.5% believes the immediate result is
important however the remaining 47.5% think they are more convinced if they
make a longer-term impact and it is not a problem if they are not rewarded or
perceived to be a good worker. Furthermore, this gives another conclusion that
almost half of the participants believe they want to see their activities
results and they want to be praised or rewarded.
Managing people with the consideration of principles of leadership
is not about the bottom line, its about the people. Without the people there
is no bottom line. If we closely examine the core characteristics of great
leadership, we will find its not power, title, authority or even technical
competency that distinguishes truly great leaders. Rather it is the ability to
both earn and keep the loyalty and trust of those whom they lead. That is why
it is very important to hear your employees and that is why the survey results
will be used to develop a model of human resource management based on principles
of leadership.
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Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №11 - 2019
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