Introduction
This essay discusses the role and function of Human Resource Management (HRM) within an organisation. The Harvard and Michigan models have been explained within the essay as they support the analysis of “soft” and “hard” HR approach that managers adapt when applying the HR policies to achieve different organisational strategies like diversification, acquisition and cost reductions. Subsequent section of the essay will examine the link between HRM and its strategies with examples taken from organisations like Harrods’ and Disney and institutes like NHS on how they use HR policies and strategies to achieve their organisational goals.
What is HRM?
Human Resource Management can be simply defined as the management of human
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By allocating a team to hire employees it makes the role of HRM much easier and efficient. This allows them to address the policies implemented much effectively. Human Resource Management covers four main areas; employee influence, work systems, human resource flow and reward management. Different roles of the HRM allows to manage the organisation thus fulfilling the assigned areas. One key role of HRM is the executive role, where the managers are viewed as specialists that encompass Human resources or people management. The audit role are concerned with the company’s HR policy thus checks the organisation to ensure all HR policies such as health & safety, staff appraisals are being implemented. The Management Information System in Harrods undertakes the facilitator role of the HRM, which helps or facilitate other departments to achieve the organisational strategy through the HR policies implemented. This in turn allows Harrods to maintain its identity as a Top Employer. Similarly the People Support team could be classed with the consultancy and service roles, allowing the department to act as internal consultants offering expertise, advice and assistance to line managers and other staff in order to achieve the organisational objective. (Brockbank, 2008). This ensures that the HRM values the importance of discretion, compliance and unwavering support.
Different models have been introduced to describe the role of HRM, which categorises the “soft” or the “hard” approach
The career that I have chosen to pursue is Human Resources Management. When I started out on the path of “what I want to be when I grow up” I started in a completely different line of work. I wanted to be a Nurse when I graduated high school. I enrolled in college and I worked at a children’s hospital. After a while I started getting burned out by working long hours and on the weekend and I started to wonder if this was the right career that I wanted to continue with. I was offered a position at a staffing company that tailored to physicians and nurses and I
Different scholars have defined the nature, scope, importance & purpose of HRM in different ways. Listing all the definitions given to HRM by the scholars in the field lies beyond the scope of this study. Given that, an attempt was made to select the most comprehensive and relevant definitions of HRM to this subject of study as follows:
Wright and McMahan (1994) define strategic HRM as “the pattern of planned Human Resource deployments and activities intended to enable the organisation to achieve its goals.” A HR function should impact the success of an organisation; a policy must remain current and suitable to both the internal and external environment. Ulrich and Lake (1990) affirm, ‘HRM systems can be the source of organisational capabilities that allow organisations to learn and capitalise on new opportunities.’
No matter what the size of a business, it is important to have a Human Resource Management (HRM) plan in place. According to Dessler (2013), small companies employ over half the population working in the United States and many individuals graduating over the next several years will either work for a small business or become an entrepreneur. Many small businesses do not have a dedicated human resource manager, so it is imperative that the business owner has a set of “practices and policies to carry out the personnel aspects” of the organization (Dessler, 2013, p. 2). In this paper, I will look at five areas of HRM necessary for a small business owner to have established policies, in order for the business to succeed and grow, “a company’s human capital is defined as the collective productive capacity of its employees” (Endres, Chowdhury, Camp & Shulze, 2013, p. 64). HRM is the process and function of effectively and fairly managing that human capital. The areas of HRM to be discussed are: recruiting, hiring, training, talent management and compensation, which all have an impact on the bottom and line play a key role in the overall strategy of the business.
The economic environment in nowadays dynamic, it is fairly important for organisations and managers to recognise the curtail of Human Resource Management. It is clear that Human Resource Management (HRM) has become one of the most recommend management strategy in the modern business (Leopold and Harris, 2009). Human Resource Management is a technique process of managing people in the workplace to enable and enhance organization performance (Leopold and Harris, 2009). This theory involved the responsible to attracting, selecting, training and managing people which make employees become more valuable to the organisations. It invests effect in learning and development at work. Also to communicate with all employees at each level to reward successful employee relations (Wilton, 2011). Human Resource Management plays a very important role in the operation strategy and management concerns in work organisations of all kinds (Leopold and Harris, 2009). In aim to justify this statement by evaluate the benefit and importance of Human Resource Management in contemporary work organisations. This essay will focus on analysis the advantages of use Human Resource Management in business also underline by explain more detail about the different HRM strategy brings benefits and give competitive advantages impact to the organisation success. Then summarise by a general conclusion on the importance of HRM in contemporary work organisations.
‘Human Resource Management is a strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities and commitment is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage or superior public services.’ (Bratton and Gold, 2012, p.7). Therefore, it is important to understand the concept of human resource management model and how does it work and influence organization. While many model of HRM emerged, soft and hard model are both most widely adopted (Truss, et al., 1997). Both soft and hard HRM model are emphasizing to integrate the HR policies with business strategic, but the main distinction is how organization sees individual, which is as resource in hard model or as human in soft
Human Resource Management (HR) acts to serve a function which is aimed at maximizing the overall performance of a business and its employees in relation to the employer 's set standards and strategic objectives. The primary focus of HR is concentrated upon the management of employees, and on the policies and systems within and outside the organisation. (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). “Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) aims to align the functions and processes of HR with the strategic aims and objectives and competitive advantage of an organisation.” (Hartel, Fujimoto, Strybosch & Fitzpatrick, 2006). After all, the key characteristic of HR is ‘integration.’ The role of HR and HR Professionals can be linked to four main SHRM theories which will be discussed below:
Netcare participates in employer surveys, internal surveys gets feedback from patients with patient feedback forms. These results help identify employment issues and are also used to reward and recognise individuals. Managers are even required to wear their name badges, thus enforcing them to lead by example.
Guest (1987) and Storey (1992) in their definitions of soft and hard models of HRM view the key distinction as being whether the emphasis is placed on the human or the resource. Soft HRM is associated with the human relations movement, the utilization of individual talents, and McGregor's (1960) Theory Y perspective on individuals (developmental humanism). This has been equated with the concept of a 'high commitment work system' (Walton 1985b), 'which is aimed at eliciting a commitment so that behaviour is primarily self-regulated rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the individual and relations within the organization are based on high levels of trust' (Wood 1996: 41). Soft HRM is also associated with the goals of flexibility and adaptability (which themselves are problematic concepts, as we shall see in more detail later), and implies that communication plays a central role in management (Storey and Sisson 1993).
Human resource management (HRM) is a designed function to maximize the performance of employees in an organization in service to the organizational objectives. The human resource unit is usually responsible for activities such as recruitment of employees, training, rewarding and also performance management. The department is also accountable for guaranteeing that the activities undertaken by the organization are in line with the standards, regulations and laws set by the government (Mathis & Jackson, 2012). When recruiting new staff into the organization, the HRM department requires several strategic points in order to recruit staffs that have the skills and specification that will help attain the set staffing goals. Some of these factors include quality of the required workforce, cost of unfilled jobs, availability of labor, highly skilled applicants who are attracted by proper advertisement of the job opportunities, employment ‘branding’ and image, and practicing internal recruiting.
Human Resource Management is the management of an organization’s employees. When a company designates a Human Resource (HR) department, those in HR are the ones responsible for overseeing the well-being of personnel in the workplace, and focus on how to attract, hire, train, motivate, and maintain employees of the organization. (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2013, p4). According to David S. Bright from the Raj Soin College of Business at Wright State University, “HR activities include recruitment, selection, training and development, compensation, benefits, performance appraisal, employee relations, health and safety, and strategic HR planning.”
After acknowledging the idealised roles of HRM, it is important to understand that what could be the impact of HRM functions on organisational performance. It has been proposed that HR resources efficiently contribute towards profitability of organisation by enhancing or by maintaining company’s competitive advantage (Singh et al., 2012). According to (Wright et al., 2001) and (Beardwell et al., 2004) HRM practices contributes to OP via leveraging the human capital, through discretionary efforts and by behaviors and attitude. According to Ulrich (1993) HRM performs the role of a strategic partner, employee champion, change agent and also administrative expert. In a study which was conducted on 256, mid-to upper level executives of medium to big size organisations, confirmed the presence of three out of Ulrich’s four roles in HR framework (Yusoff, Abdullah, & Baharom, 2010). Studies reveal that HRM performs a strategic role of Knowledge management (KM) which is to develop, share and to apply knowledge in the organisation in order to gain and to maintain a competitive advantage for business (Petersen & Poulfelt, 2002) as viewed in (Edvardsson, 2008). KM is required to develop the employees according to business strategy which is the basic function of HRM. If HRM practices develop knowledge, employee skills and motivation then employees behave in those ways which can be considered supportive for a
Human resource management (HRM) is an important strategic and systematic approach that provides each company with the opportunity to create policies and practices, as well as to establish administrative forms (Pfeffer, 2007). According to Armstrong (2009) HRM is an approach that deals with ‘employment, development, and well-being of the people working in organizations’. However HRM has evolved significantly through the years due to the rapid social, economic, political and environmental changes. The HRM has replaced the personal management in terms of managing workforce and sometimes has a similar description in use. It is claimed that HRM differs from personnel management, being a holistic approach and recognizing people as assets and not
HRM functions must be integrated with each other and with strategic issues if they are to make a contribution to HR outcomes or the “bottom line” for the organisation. Discuss this statement, with reference to relevant HRM structure.