期刊名称：Research and Practice in Human Resource Management
印刷版ISSN：0218-5180
出版年度：2008
卷号：16
期号：01
出版社：Curtin University of Technology
摘要：The growing business competitiveness worldwide places great challenges on
organisations to improve company-customer relationship, quality, and welfare
schemes for staff. In Nigeria, the generator servicing industry, which consists
of firms that provide alternative sources of power through generator plants and
supporting services, is large and continually strives to provide competitive
services. Generator servicing organisations in contemporary times require
effective and timely allocation of staff and resources to demanding companies
who may sometimes require around the clock technical assistance. This paper
presents a staff scheduling intervention programme in which the number of staff
to be assigned to respective shifts each working day is determined according to
the volume of work to be done in order to optimise the total personnel cost for
the company. The application of the programming model is to a company operating
in Nigeria that provides generator plants and supporting services to clients in
diverse businesses. Overall, the paper is an attempt to link application of a
theoretical programming model to the practical world of management and HR in a
developing country. The problem, which is developed as a linear programme and
solved, using Microsoft Excel software, shows that five shifts are required to
avoid inefficiencies with a maximum manpower requirement of 41 people, and a
cost range from N1,100 to N1,200 for all the shifts. Adequate staff availability
is ensured and the cost of wages is minimised at N 135,950 per day. In an
endeavour to control inefficiencies, loss of income and goodwill in a generator
servicing company, decisions on staff scheduling that are based on analytical
techniques are likely to show benefits and advantages. Although this problem is
solved for a developing country, it could also be useful for human resources
management (HRM) in developed countries where the HRM policies and practices
being administered are quite different. The relevance of the study findings for
HRM policies and practices is that it provides a mechanism for effective
utilisation of human resources, and an opportunity to make the company
competitive and effective in its operational activities through a time savings
control mechanism.
