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Advantages of Salzburg approach
People in the modern world are continually exposed to advertisement on the radio, television, billboards, and internet. Job advertisement is useful for the companies in order to help them informing the public about their requirements for the vacant job positions and for the people who are looking for jobs by allowing them to compare different companies.
Job advertisement is the first step in the recruitment process. Usually discrimination laws falls under gender, race, ethnicity, etc. It is unlikely that discrimination based on star sign will be considered illegal and hence this advertisement causes no legal harm to the company but can help it achieve some publicity.
In this case, advertisement is a key issue. The company was seeking employee by advertisement using the quote “people who born under the star signs.” It is specifically categorizes people whose qualifications are eligible and clarify to the candidate that they can apply in this job or not. There is a belief of the company that it could be effective outcomes of choosing employees according to some researches show that many people born under the five stars have high performance and also suitable to be top employees.
One of the major advantages of this recruitment strategy is that it lowers the number and the scope of characteristics of the applicants for ease of seeking qualified people. For example, an insurance salesperson needs to be believable, responsible, following the result, full of energy, and has a good human relation. From the statistic, <http://www. buzzle.com/articles/compatible-zodiac-signs.html>, it illustrated that people who are in the Taurus sign (very patient, practical, loving and reliable) and people in the Aries sign (vital and enthusiasm) may be suitable to be a salesperson since he needs to go out of the office to meet many customers in a day and can cause tiredness or stress easily. Individuals who are in Leo sign are bright, charming, and generous. He may also be as a salesperson because he looks charming to present the company’s service to the customer.
The manager needs to have high leadership and he should be able to make decision confidently with cautious consideration. People in Capricorn sign tend to be reserved, serious looking, cautious, and determined. Leo sign people are generous and loved by the other whom may be suitable for being a manager as he is big hearted and generous to his subordinates.
Moreover, for sections of public who are staunch believers of star signs, this could be an added motivation to join this company. Their lives obsess with star sign and they always follow the advice in the newspaper or internet for instance. They may not be confident to work in the company with many people in various star signs. If the company wants new employees in the five star signs, it would make some of them in the five star signs more confident to join the company. People who are strongly believer in star signs can be brilliant and creative that can make good progress to the company as their working inspiration are given by the company.
Disadvantages of Salzburg approach
There is no scientific evidence that high achievement has anything to do with star signs, hence this approach could hurt the company performance in the long run. <> states the general characteristics of a person to be considered suitable for the job position in the company as right capabilities and personalities.
The right capabilities are classified into education, experience, and skills. Education is considered from the field and level of study to be consistent with the work. If the field of study is not directly match the work requirement, at least it should be nearby. Sometimes if a person did not study in the related field but he had worked in this field for a long time then he can still be considered. Working experience is another key issue. If the recruited person is experienced, he would not need much time to study his new work. However, although a new employee has no working experience, he may have a good ability to learn new things quickly. Lastly, personal skills and intelligence shows that this person tends to be effective or good at which kind of works if he has an opportunity to learn and practice.
Personalities can be considered in term of physical and temperament such as face, shape, demeanor, and emotional expression especially for an insurance salesperson. Personal interest or popularity can also influence the individual’s working outcome. Social attitudes such as right-wing, some religious groups, or radical group sometimes affect the working condition. Working motivation is an activation force that causes different personal working behavior. For example, some workers want progress or to be successful in working and get a higher position but some workers only after high wages. Also, some do not have working motivation and work inactively. Expressive and stylistic traits such as human relation, politeness, self-conceit, creativity, and inquisitiveness can be observed from group activities or working as a trainee. Finally, pathological trend is the last key of personalities. It is about the personal mental health and ability to adjust himself to the changing environment. It is a vital issue because nowadays there is an increase in the people with mental health problem.
Furthermore, employee selection base on star signs selection might cause bad publicity to the company. Others may think that the company has no standard and universality in recruiting employees. Moreover, the company will have a bad reputation internationally. The company will lose the trustworthiness because the insurance company likes Salzburg required a high reliability.
This recruitment system also impacts the current employees in the company. The conflict between employees may happen because employees from the five star signs may think that they are high proficient employees. The employees will have high self-confidence. They may think that the things they do are good to the company but actually it may not good to the company.
For sections of public who are modern thinkers, this could repel them from applying to the company even if they are star achievers falling under the required star signs. It is unfair to people who were not born under the five star signs and have a high ability. This can lead to the unethical problem – human right in recruitment and selection. In addition, it is very hard to find the right employees to the right jobs because people who were born under the five out of the twelve star signs are less than fifty percent so the chance to meet a high potential employees are low.
Opinion and Suggestion
It is not a perfect way recruiting people from the star sign because a lot of high capability people may not born under these five star signs. For example, <http://www. 4to40.com/legends/print.asp?p=Eddie_Lampert>, Eddie Lampert is a famous investor, financier, and businessman in USA. In 2006, he was the richest businessman in Connecticut. He was born on 19 July 1962 under Cancer signs. As a result, he is a good representative of successful person in work and personal life who was not born under the five star signs.
Even though it is not against the law in Austria that the company is allowed to recruit new employees from the star signs they are in, it seems to be unethical for the other who are suitable for the position due to their field of study or their work experience. The company should consider the strength of candidates more than the belief in star signs because it discriminates other skilled workers who was born in the other star signs and might be able to make more progress to the company. It absolutely cut off their opportunity by the groundless reason of the star sign statistical research that was only the trend but it cannot confirm that it is totally right.
Individual’s personal capabilities came from his or her background, hometown, environment, education, financial status, and experiences more than just which star sign they are in. For example, <> Steven Paul Jobs who is the co-founder and chief executive of Apple Company and also the board director of Walt Disney Company is the person that was not born under the five star signs and is successful in his work. Jobs was born in February 24, 1955 under Pisces. He is the person who is creative because Jobs began and developed i-phone that is popular at the present time. This example can state that Steven Paul Jobs is successful due to his work background rather than star signs.
Normally, the successful companies recruiting new employees from right capabilities and personalities as mentioned before. However, the companies also need to train their employees regularly to have more skills and make their knowledge up to date to make they work more effectively. Boontanon (1999) defined training as a procedure that is systematically arranged to change the behavior, attitude, knowledge, and skills of the workers to develop human and work quality that leads to increasing in outcome and meet the goal of the organization.
(1999) states that training can be separated into two types: initial or short term training and continuing or long term training. Initial training is for new employees of the company who are not experienced in understanding the company instructions, policies, and scopes of work to be ready to work. Continuing training has many objectives including review of the previous session in company’s policies, goals, and conditions. Also, to make understanding in the change of the company such as new policies and what is happening in the market recently. This training gives more knowledge and skills to the employees via lecture, demonstration, group discussion, workshop, case study, and other activities to make them work more actively and effectively in order to improve customers’ satisfaction.
Finally, the company should not advertise on star signs because it is too specific. This advertisement can be blamed because it seems to discriminate the work opportunity of people who have proper capability and personality for the work but were not born under the requested star signs. The company can still seek new employee persisting in this method but they should accept every candidate’s applications and sort out whose star sign does not match the requirements after that without letting them know in order to maintain the company’s reputation as an insurance company. If the company looks unreliable, how can the people trust and do insurance with it?
References
Books
Boontanon S. (1999), Sales Management, Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Thailand
Raymond J. (2006), Managing Human Resource, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Australia
Schermerhorn J., Campling J., Poole D., Wiesner R. (2004), Management: an Asia-Pacific perspective, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Australia
Internet
<http://www.allsands.com/health/bloodtypeperso_zud_gn.htm>
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<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1135643/We-employ-workers-born-specific-star-signs-says-insurance-company.html>
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs>
<http://www.4to40.com/legends/print.asp?p=Eddie_Lampert>
