Overcoming Asymmetric Power Relations In HRM: An Essay.

Recommendations to overcome the Asymmetrical Power Relationship between the recruiter and the candidate

Discuss about the Overcoming Asymmetric Power Relations.

Human Resource Management is considered to be an essential part of the business process. If the recruitment and selection of a business goes well then there exists high chances of organizational success. According to Cascio (2018), the recruiters often tend to have a dominating nature in the process of recruitment as well as selection. Due to the poor condition of the economy, the employees often succumb to this pressure and do whatever is asked out of them. The primary aim of the given report is to develop certain recommendations with respect to the overcoming of the asymmetrical power relationship between the recruiter and the candidate.

According to Bratton and Gold (2017), the power relationships during the recruitment and selection process are quite different. The recruitment procedure tends cost less whereas the applicant dominates the recruitment and the recruiter dominates the selection process. Given in this section are four recommendations to overcome these asymmetric power relations:

Selection criteria’s lay a major role in the process of recruitment and selection. Selection Criteria’s can be defined as a specific set of requirements that the candidate is require to fulfill in order to be selected for a particular job (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). The competency based selection helps the recruiter in ht process of recruitment as it becomes simple for the recruiter to just employ and go forward with those employees who have the relevant skills which are required for the job. Very often the recruiters do not state down any relevant skills or set criteria in a job requirement and during the last interview they state down their selection criteria which lead to loss of time and energy from the side of the candidate. In such a condition, the power of the recruiter is very high and the candidates very often have to succumb under the pressure of the given employees (Gatewood, Field and Barrick 2015).  The setting down of well defined selection criteria has several other long term benefits as well like:

• Reduction in turnover- Setting a well defined selection criteria’s helps in hiring of the workers who tend to be suitable for the job. This goes a long way in reducing the turnover rate of the organization.
• Diverse workforce- Selection criteria’s vary from department to department and helps the organization to foster a work environment which consists of all kinds of people.
• Reduction in costs- The recruitment and selection process is a very complicated and expensive one. The candidates often need to be paid for the process and if at the end their capabilities differ from the selection criteria then it is wastage of time for both the recruiter and the applicant.
• Improves the Quality of the workforce- If all the people who are hired on the basis of the selection criteria are actually employed, the organization shall have a better work force for the company (Stone and Stone 2013).

These competencies can be formed by:

• Planning
• Management indulgence

Example of Selection Criteria

• Knowledge of Microsoft Office Tools
• Excellent communication skills

The procedure of recruitment is extremely lengthy. The recruitment wants to gain full knowledge about a candidate and for this purpose; he or she very often conducts a detailed interviews to understand the background and job aspirations of the employee. It is suggested that instead of doing so; the employer can form a comprehensive and detailed application form in order to gather information and background of the given candidate (Snell, Morris and Bohlander 2015).  The application form can be attached with the certificates of the employees and d this can help the organization to select and screen the candidates before hand before inviting them for the rigorous interview process. The data which can be gathered in the application form are as follows:

• Personal details
• Education
• Employment history
• Activities and interests
• References
• Reasons for applying
• Competency questions

The recruiters should be developing specific selection criteria so as to make the process of hiring easier

As observed from the first recommendation, the application forms should also comprise of the selection criteria for the post and ask for relevant responses from the candidates. They will be required to given in detailed answers with real life experiences as a response (Newsome et al. 2015). This will solve the requirement of the extra interviews and the candidate can just proceed for a competency test and final interview. This saves a huge amount of cost ranging from facilities for the candidates to salaries of the interview panel. This shall help in cutting costs which will help in improving the asymmetric distribution of power.

Resumes can be defined as a formal document which consists of the skills and capabilities of a candidate who is applying for a particular job. The resume consists of the following contents:

• Career Objectives of the employee
• Educational Background
• Employment and work history (Renwick, Redman and Maguire 2013).
• Other related experiences
• Skills and achievements
• Awards received
• Projects completed
• Interests and Hobbies
• Memberships or Professional Organizations
• Personal background
• References

This list of information tends to provide a detailed synopsis of the life of the candidate applied for the job. They tend to serve as an introduction and resume screening forms and effective part of job aspect (Nickson 2013). However, lately the process of resume screening has become a rather rigorous process and is quite time consuming as well. Secondly there exist two other issues with the traditional style of resumes as follows:

• Not all information given in the given resume is always true. The candidate can give false details regarding the criteria and experience so as to impress the interview panel.
• Secondly, there are various professional resume makers available who can be hired to make the given resume so as to make it look good and attractive.

Hence, the recommendations state that the given resume style should be changed and the concept of a vide resume should be introduced in order to figure out how the candidate is in real. The video resume will comprise of a similar format where the candidates will give details of all the relevant components of the interview (Brewster et al. 2016). The only difference is that it will be in a video component and the candidates will speak for themselves. This way the interview panel will be able to understand the communications skills of the candidates along with their confidence level.

During the asymmetric power relation in the recruitment and selection procedure of a job hire there exist a dominating power of the recruiter with respect to the candidate. To overcome the given situation, it is suggested that the candidate should not just rely on one company and put in his or her entire effort in that one particular aspect of the job. Instead the candidate should see to it and invest his time in similar job profiles in different companies in a similar industry or a different one (Ben-Ari and Enosh 2013). In such a scenario, the candidate would be having a variety of options at his disposal and then he can balance out his opportunities at the various enterprises. There exists a high probability that the candidate may be able to crack one of the interviews.

The recruiters should set up the process of a vigorous application form which should be very detailed

If he is able to do so then, he will be able to overcome the cost of the time he wasted in the job interview in the given company. In this manner, he would not have wasted his time in the particular interview procedure for too long and he also would get a job in return of his efforts which would then raise his position in the in the asymmetric power relation and he would not be required to succumb to pressure in such a scenario (Thompson, Parker and Cox 2015). If he has various opportunities at his disposal then it would be easy for him to stand on his ground and not take up a job which is not suitable for his post or indulge in an activity which is unethical. The power of the recruiters arises when they understand that the employees do not have any other option as to their employment.

On the other hand, the employees themselves feel succumbed under pressure and they often accept any job which is not at par with their qualifications. Hence, if they have other opportunities along side they can balance the power relations with the recruiters.

Conclusion

Therefore from the above it can be stated that there exists a high degree of asymmetric power relations between the recruiters and the candidates because of criteria’s like lack of jobs and peer pressure. The assignment states certain ways in which these can be removed and the power can be balanced properly.

References

Ben-Ari, A. and Enosh, G., 2013. Power relations and reciprocity: Dialectics of knowledge construction. Qualitative Health Research, 23(3), pp.422-429.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. ,2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P. and Vernon, G., 2016. International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.

Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.

Gatewood, R., Feild, H. S. and Barrick, M. ,2015. Human resource selection. Nelson Education.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

Newsome, K., Taylor, P., Bair, J. and Rainnie, A. eds., 2015. Putting labour in its place: labour process analysis and global value chains. Palgrave.

Nickson, D., 2013. Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.

Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), pp.1-14.

Snell, S.A., Morris, S. and Bohlander, G.W., 2015. Managing human resources. Nelson Education.

Stone, R.J. and Stone, R.J., 2013. Managing human resources. John Wiley and Sons.

Thompson, P., Parker, R. and Cox, S., 2015. Labour and asymmetric power relations in global value chains: The digital entertainment industries and beyond. Putting labour in its place: labour process analysis and global value chains, pp.45-63.