HRM is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations and most valued assets of the organization. In general term used to describe a variety of functions aimed at effectively managing an organization’s employees or “human resources.” HRM is professionals oversee the “people” side of an organization including benefits, career development, training, hiring, and many other functions.
The goal of HRM is to assist organizations to meet their strategic goals by attracting and retaining qualified employees, and managing them effectively while ensuring that the organization complies with all appropriate labor laws. HRM meet the need of business and management, to gain commitment of employees to add value to the business.
Dimensions of HRM
Approach
HRM Focus
Hard
Treats employees simply as a resource of the business (like machinery).
Strong link with corporate business planning what resources need, how to get them and how much will they cost.
Identify workforce needs of the business and recruit & manage accordingly.
Their focus on organizational prospective
Soft
Treats employees as the most important resource in the business and a source of competitive advantage.
Employees are treated as individuals and their needs are planned accordingly.
Concentrate on the needs of employees their roles, rewards, motivation etc.
Soft HRM focus on interests of the employees.
Table Guest model of hard-soft dimensions of HRM
HR polices can be categorized as two, tight and loose the different between a system based on compliance and system based on commitment.
Compliance; they work because they have to do, for fear of some negative consequence, example; losing their job.
Commitment; doing something, one believes that one is doing right thing to do.
HRM and personal /IR compared to 27 dimension of story’s
Story has established a theoretical model based on perception of how organizations have evolved from major personnel and IR practices to HRM practices. This model is based on ideal types and also story emphasizes 27 dimensions of difference between personnel and IR against HRM. It describes four elements, which differentiate HRM such as beliefs and assumptions, strategic aspects, line Management and key levers.
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Table 27 Dimensions of Story’s compared to HRM and personnel/ IR practices
Briefly explaining some of 27 dimensions of story’s
Speed of decision; in personal approach the speed of decision is very slow because they are decision making process is long, they have depend on top level managers decision and some time decision depend upon their subordinates. But in HRM approach the speed of decision is fast, line manager can make decision on time and act on it.
Job design; personal approach jobs are design according to their specific task so the employees will be specialist in their field, most of the time they have along and do their task. But in HRM approach they are job designing based on teamwork so employees can shear their ideas and get better solution for problems or task.
Communication; personal approach employees can’t directly communicate top level employees there will be intermediates or middleman to convey massage. In HRM approach employees can directly communicate to line manager or top level manager so they can talk about their problems or discuss their task with managers.
Management role; personal approach management role will be transactional leadership were they known to establish performance specifications and make sure they are accomplished by a given deadline, limit the contentment of employees and create a low amount of employee commitment.
In HRM approach transformational leadership as the ability of a leader to motivate employees to surpass their own individual aspirations for the greater good of the organization. Transformational leaders are morally responsible manager who focuses on developing the moral maturity, values, and standards of his or her subordinates and strengthening their devotion to serve the well-being of others, their organization, and society beyond self-interest (Burns, J.1978).
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Role of the line managers and employees of the organization
Line managers are crucial man to the success of HR policies and practices. The respective roles of HR, line management discussion are taken by line manager. Line manager is the person who is authorized to direct the work of subordinates and is responsible for accomplishing the organization’s tasks. Responsibility of line managers typically include;
Place the right person on the right job
Orientate new employees and train employees
Improve the job performance of each person
Gain creative cooperation and developing smooth working relationships
Interpret the company’s policies and procedures
Controlling labor costs
Develop the abilities of each employees
Creating and maintain department morale
Protect employees’ health and physical condition
Role of the line manager
Employee are most powerful aspect of the company, they have different levels of responsible for managing one or more business aspects. In their various roles, employees have the responsibility to manage those processes that they are assigned to. For example, employees working in the financial department are responsible for managing the financials of the company. But top level managers are responsible for managing the decision making processes and overseeing business operations for the best interest of the business. The responsibilities of employees are,
Deal with customers
Responsible for day-to-day’s operation of the company
Interact relevant managers
Involve in planning process
Minimize cost and etc.
Role of the Employees
Section B (Answers for Statements)
There are potential benefits for both the individual and the organization from using a proper performance management system
Performance management systems is a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure it is achieved. The aim of performance management systems is to improve individual’s performance and consequently organizational performance to achieve organizational goals. Such system can play a crucial role in managing the performance in an organization by:
Increase profits; by increasing employee productivity and quality of work.
Equitable treatment of employees; All employees are treated fairly by implementing.
Increase employee responsibility; Communicating realistic but challenging job expectations and making employee accountable for their decisions and actions result in noticeable improvements in employee tardiness, absences and organizational commitment.
As a HR manager, you need to manage different human resource practices in the workplace
Yes as a HR manager he needs to manage different human resource practices in the workplace. HR practices on workplace trust, job satisfaction, commitment, effort and perceived organizational performance. According to “Julian Gould-Williams” postal survey of UK local government employees, the results support the hypothesis that HR practices are powerful predictors of trust and organizational performance. These findings demonstrate the need for organizations to re-evaluate their current HR practices in an attempt to improve overall performance of organization (Julian Gould-Williams, 2003). This mean HR manager needs to manage various HR practices improve overall performance of employees and organization.
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There is greater impact of globalization on issues such as human resource planning
Yes i agree this statement there is an impact of globalization on issues such as human resource planning. Globalization is which requires organizations to move people, idea, products and information around the world to meet local needs. The main responsibilities is transforming as the modern business faces pressure of globalization. The pressure on traditional HR models taking place can be traced to globalization.
The increasing prevalence of globalization is driven by a number of factors, including shortage of talent in developed countries, availability of low cost labor and technological progress.
Different national cultures and practices make an influence for making a culturally diverse workforce
Culture may be defined as the values, beliefs and behaviors shared by a group of people. A group may be identified by many criteria such as nationality, religion geography or language. Although nationality may encompass several cultures it is the most commonly used notion of culture. Culture plays a significant role in workplace assumptions, behavior and organizational cultures.
Cultural diversity within workforce is now the norm as well as an economic necessity. Spurred on by globalization and increased personal mobility, the need for skilled immigrants to fulfill labor shortages has brought many changes to the workplace. In 2005, Forfás estimated that, in addition to indigenous skilled workers, Ireland would require up to 30,000 skilled immigrants per annum to fulfill their labor shortages over the next decade (Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, 2005). The rapid shift from a predominantly indigenous and homogenous workforce to a culturally diverse one brings challenges and opportunities for organizations. Challenges can be broad ranging from basic communications and language difficulties to complexities in decision-making processes and team management. However, international experience shows that managing cultural diversity in an effective way enables organizations not only overcome such challenges but also to fully exploit the opportunities of cultural synergy to strategic advantage.
Cultural differences remain persistent and present an array of challenges for companies. Firms that manage adaptation effectively are able to achieve congruence in the various cultures where they operate while extending their main sources of advantage across borders, and in some cases even making cultural diversity itself a source of advantage. While this has emphasized cultural differences, which are often underappreciated, it’s equally important to take note of cultural similarities. High and low power distance cultures, for example, both reflect responses to common challenges around how human beings should properly interact with each other in the face of inevitable differences in the power they hold in particular contexts.
Different national, cultural practice influence managing the workforce and understanding of national culture to make better decisions. The basic way is that improving the alignment or congruence between management practices and cultural contexts;
Participative management can improve profitability in low power distance cultures but worsen it in high power distance cultures
Quick fixes can improve profitability in more short-term oriented cultures but worsen it in more long term oriented cultures
Merit-based pay and promotion policies can improve profitability in more masculine cultures and reduce it in more feminine cultures
Emphasizing individual contributions can improve profitability in more individualistic cultures and worsen it in more collectivistic cultures
The above highlighted key points that can help align business practices to national culture. It often makes sense to structure such analyses around the intersection of specific dimensions of cultural distance and business functions or workforce in order to arrive at a meaningful level of specificity.
Task 02
Section A (Answers for Case study)
Explain the Audit Firms model of flexibility
According to Audit Commission they use mainly three types of flexibility such as numerical flexibility, functional flexibility and place-of-work flexibility.
Numerical flexibility; the Audit Commission is always faced with peaks and mangers in the workload. Those situations they increasing or reducing staff to adjust the quantity of labour to meet fluctuations in demand.
In Functional flexibility; the Audit Commission developed flexibility by developing skills of its staffs to deal any work. So the nature work changes, employees are easy handle different tasks.
Place-of-work flexibility; the Audit Commission uses this way to respond to the challenges within their business environment. This method of working has helped it to meet more closely the needs of its staff. As part of its flexible working arrangements, homeworking has helped to transform the ways in which many people work and improve their work-life-balance.
Briefly explain the need for flexibility
The need for flexibility is increase due to demographic and social changes the number of people in the paid workforce with caring responsibilities is set to increase. Moreover, increasing competition has placed emphasis on quality, innovation and reducing the unit cost of production job design and the organization of work must both mobilize employees’ energies for quality innovation and reliable productivity. To having a flexibility policy however isn’t enough to satisfy the need of firm to be considered best practice. Flexible workplace can also boost retention, productivity and innovation.
According to the given case study the firm is implementing the correct types of flexibility to their employees. The firms believes that its ability to deal effectively with the need for flexibility strengthens its position as an employer of choice and enables the group to deliver levels of service that differentiate from its competitors.
Evaluate the advantages and dis advantages of flexible working practices
Advantages
Disadvantages
Less stress
Flexible work arrangements are not always appropriate for all people
Employers have great freedom to organize their work to finish on time.
Some time employees have to take their own time to finish work
Homeworking helps an organization to develop family-friendly policies that improve the work-life balance of its staff especially in Audit Commission.
Employees have to spend extra time to do work if they do homeworking and unequal pay and benefits
Choice of working patterns
More and more legislation is being brought forward to enable employees to request flexible working but this legislation is not always necessary, sometimes it just creates an unnecessary administrative burden.
Less absence and staff turnover
Difficulty of retentive staff development
Improves more productivity and efficiency
For certain jobs working from home is inappropriate
Increased feeling of personal control over schedule and working environment
Negative impact on staff productivity and camaraderie.
Less training opportunities
Table Evaluate the advantages and dis advantages of flexible working practices
Section B (Essay)
Equal opportunities within the workplace
Equal opportunity within the workplace is all about providing a fair workplace and fair procedures for employees. In today most of the companies giving several equal opportunities to their employees but some organization doesn’t have equal opportunities. It is recognized that in order to achieve equal opportunity for all, the Force must recognize and address the diverse needs of staff and will ensure that due consideration is given to the impact of all employment activates on staff and make appropriate adjustments to ensure equality of opportunity.
Discriminating employees by looking their gender identity, nationality, race, colour, ethnic origin, age, disability, marital or family status, religion or religious beliefs, or any other such thins which rise to unfair or unjustified discriminatory behavior or processes is forms of discrimination.
The legislative frameworks of discrimination are direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination is treating one person less favorably than another in the same or similar situations, or dividing them from others solely because they have for example a disability or illness. Refusing to employ someone who has the required skills because they are, for example deaf, over a certain age or pregnant would constitute such discrimination. Indirect discrimination happens when there is a provision or practice which applies equally to everyone which, in practice, has an adverse impact on a particular group and cannot be justified. For example an unnecessary physical or age requirement can discriminate against women or disabled people. There are several acts against discrimination in work place.
Sex discrimination act (SDA) (1975 AND 1986), The SDA makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person, directly or indirectly on grounds of sex and or marriage, in employment or in the provision of goods, facilities or services. Direct sex discrimination occurs when a person of one sex is treated less favorably, on the grounds of sex, than a person of the other sex would be treated in the same or not materially different circumstances. Indirect sex discrimination occurs where a requirement or condition is applied equally to both women and men, but a proportion of one sex which can comply with it is much smaller than the proportion of the other sex which can comply.
Discrimination and equal opportunity policy (Maplecroft, 2010) the aim of this policy is to ensure that “the entity” has activities in place to prevent discrimination and promote equal opportunity within the workplace, enriching the diversity, rights and morale of employees and enhancing the organization’s relations and reputation.
Equal opportunities basically focuses on management activity by recruiting results it benefits for employees to improve opportunities for disadvantaged employees. Likewise, management diversity focuses on management activity by managing results to benefit for employees to improved opportunities for all managers.
At the end if an employee’s believe that they are treated more fairly and reasonably, the word of mouth will spread that company genuinely and it recruits and promoted on merit and it meet its equal opportunity responsibilities. By doing this company can gain competitive advantage. Moreover, on evaluating the above points it is clear that legislation can be a favor for both the parties such as employee and employer if they are followed legally and practiced inside the organization but however because of many reasons these are not followed in certain areas and organization and the framework is still not followed. By analyzing Current thinking about how diversity works in practice in organizations is developing all the time. Whether you believe diversity should complement or supplement equal opportunities, building these approaches into your volunteering recruitment and development practices will bring benefits, not only to the volunteers themselves, as well as to the organization. Therefore, everyone is treated equally, ensuring staff are judged on their merits or qualifications. This in turn makes for a happier workplace and provides a sense of trust in the organization. It leads to good staff morale, encourages more objective appointments, and can provide diversity in the workplace.
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