Hr_Importance

Study of Effective Human Resource management: HRM Objectives, Responsibilities, Capabilities and Effects Many of the previous literature writers focused on the Leadership capabilities of Human Resource Manager and various articles tried to find out the linking between HRM and a particular business or field of a business. Well, “Human Resource Management” is still more interesting topic to research because of its consistently growing importance in all type of Industries, organizations, companies and everywhere. Abstract: This paper exposes the need and purpose of studying the Human resource management sector, Human resource manager’s Objectives in terms of its responsibilities and Capabilities to cope with the expectations in achieving the objectives. The result suggest that if a human resource manager would adopt all the necessary skills and behaviors (Capabilities) to strengthen their managing people skills and behaviors, then it would be beneficial for successful delivery of projects or products (Eddie Fisher, 2010). The additional future study should be done in more interesting areas such as gender differences and HRM, Difference in Human resource management of developing and developed countries; to further nourishment of the human resource manager’s objectives, skills and capabilities. Purpose of This Article: The main purpose of selecting this subject as research area is to find out the effectiveness of people, employee, labor, workers or man force, human values in short Human resource on the projects or organizations productivity, reputation, market, achievements, growth and success. The another purpose included in this review is that the objectives of a human resource manager are not only related to interview, select and recruiting, training the workforce but also contributes in handling variety of other issues in business and cultural related sectors. These issues mainly includes productivity and growth of organizations, firm’s competitive advantages, and increasing competition, cultural aspects, team related issues and so on. The case study included shows the effect of HRM (failure and success of HRM departments) in their relative areas. Literature Review: According to Peter J. and K. Kidger (1999): “People and how we manage them are becoming more important because many other sources of competitive success are less powerful than they once were, and this is because individuals differ in the type and level of the knowledge, skills and abilities they possess, with the result that higher levels of human competence will be both valuable and rare”. “In the US, Huselid (1995) argued that there was a set of linked HR practices which were the key to high employee performance and therefore to organizational success. The set of practices were: - Careful recruitment and selection, Emphasis on training and learning, performance appraisal with inks to contingent pay, Employee participation in performance improvement, Extensive communication.(Peter J, K. Kidger, 1999 ).” Snap and Redman (1995) stated that, “In recent years there has been growing recognition of contribution of human resources strategies in meeting organizational goals”. Traditional organizational behavior of the human resource manager was just to select the people who are best fitted for the job position, training them for better performance, and dealing with the team and team related conflicts as shown in the figure. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres..HRM.jpg But now the business and organizational environment are changing consistently, in effect of this, the department of Human resource management is becoming the more focused than it was because it is really hard for the organization to have and keep well trained and qualified staff. So, to cope up with this a theoretical work and research is needed to be done on the new HRM related fields. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres...HRM-management-people-team-marketing-training-300x225.jpg However, according to Pinto and Prescott [Journal of Management 14 (1988) 5], influence of human resource management on projects success is very less or negligible as compared to other factors such as quality, cost, schedule, risk, a scope and procurement management. In this literature, some of the major disputes included to study and prove the potency of Human Resource management and required proficiencies of Human resource manager. This includes importance of high strength HRM in firms to make it sustainable organization in competitive domains, Businesses and management, marketing department, manipulating disputes by cultural differences, team building, workforce commitment etc. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres'imgurl=http://www.wfpma.com/images/ahrihrmodel.gif Before going to the study of objectives of human resource management, and the applicable skills of human resource manager; it is necessary to define or to put in words that what actually human resource management is and is necessary to think over human resource management as a research topic. Requirement for the study of Human resource management: In presence there are several different definitions available for human resource management.” There is typically no single human resource strategy. We must at least, analyze the management of managers separately from the management of the non management work force (M. Poole, Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management”, Volume 1.)”. As stated by M. Poole, following are the US and UK definitions by various authors: US definitions: a] Fomburn, Tichy and Devanna (1984) :- The critical management task is to align the formal structure and the HR system[selection, appraisal, rewards and development] so that they can drive the strategic objectives of the organization. b] Walton (1985) :- The new HRM model is compose the policies that promote mutuality-mutual goals, mutual influence, mutual respect, mutual rewards, and mutual responsibility. The theory is that policies of mutuality will elicit commitment which in turn will yield both better economic performance and greater human development. c] Foulkes (1986) :- Effective HRM does not exist in a vacuum but must be related to the overall strategy of an organization….too many personnel managers have a tendency to create and function their own little worlds, forgetting that their primary value is helping to realize top and line management goals. UK Definitions: a] Guest (1987) :- The main dimensions of HRM involve the goal of integration, the goal of employee commitment ,the goal of flexibility (organic, structural ,functional),the goal of quality (of staff, performances, standards and public image). b] Torrington and Hall (1987):- HRM is directed mainly at management needs for human resources (not necessarily employees) to be provided and deployed .There is greater emphasis on planning, monitoring and control rather than a problem solving and mediation. From the perspective of Peter J, K. Kidger, (1999), this term is defined as: “HRM consist of policies, processes and practices by which an organization obtains and utilizes people to meet its objectives. (Best Practice, Best Fit).” This indirectly represents that there is no exact definition for human resource management and it is really difficult to bind the words to define such a vital area. The role of Human resource manager changes in accordance with the field, situation, culture, and the type of project. K. Bredin, J. Soderlund (2006) indicated the same in following format: “As project work changes the work situation for employees and thereby the structure and possibilities of designing effective HRM systems and processes. In our view, the whole purpose of HRM is to manage the relationship between the co-workers (employees, temporary workers and consultants) and the firm by developing, implementing and supporting systems and processes that create viable and competitive firms and highly motivated, healthy and competent coworkers. ” This change in work situations is responsible for the changes in objectives of human resource manager. In a result, objectives of the human resource management are needed to be redefined all the time. The objectives of Human resource management: A. The HR’s main objective should be making the organization sustainable and profitable in this competitive environment by maintaining superior human capital. Jin, Y., Hopkins, M. M. and Wittmer, J. L. S. (2010), made a very wise description of necessitate of having superior human capital: “ 1. Organizations with superior human capital resources that are aligned with the overall organizational strategy will outperform their competition and have long-term success (Carmeli & Schaubroeck, 2005; Peteraf, 1993).The reasons underlying this argument are that : * the skills and knowledge of the workforce increase the firm’s productivity, * which makes human capital a valuable resource; * these skills and knowledge need time to develop and should be updated constantly, which is costly and not possible for all organizations, making human capital a rare resource; * the tacit knowledge developed by social interaction in the firm makes human capital an imperfectly imitable resource; * The process of developing human capital is unique to each individual because it includes such things as background and experience, such that human capital is a non-substitutable resource (Barney, 1991; Lado & Wilson, 1994; Penrose, 1959; Wernerfelt, 1984). 2. Human capital resources distinguish one firm from another and are essential to a firm’s competitive advantage (Carmeli & Schaubroeck, 2005; Pfeffer 1994, 1998).A firm’s human capital determines the firm’s workforce infrastructure, management involvement, and training, each of which is a key component of a firm’s success in implementing its strategic initiatives (e.g., Six Sigma, lean manufacturing) (Henderson & Evans,2000).” B. The second chief objective of human resource manager is to deal with the employees, their issues successfully. It is the traditional definition of HRM as stated above. Human resource manger should achieve workforce competence by smarter selection criteria of employees. The objective of getting hold of superior workforce will be achieved by an HR by : * Recruiting and selecting employees * Employee presentation * Employee training * Employee development * And a cleaver employee attendance, leave, shift and payroll management. According to M.Poole, * “Employees are proactive rather than passive inputs into productive processes; they are capable of ‘development’, worthy of ‘trust’ and ‘collaboration’, to be achieved through participation and informed choice ‘(Beer and Spector, 1985).The stress is therefore generating commitment via communication, motivation and leadership’(Storey,1987,p.6). If employees’ commitment will yield ‘better economic performance’ it is also sought as a route to ‘greater human development’ (Walton, 1985).The focus is on HR policies to deliver ‘resourceful’ humans (Morris and Burgoyne, 1973), on HRM. He further adds; * Where organizations peruse s a strategy of producing high value-added goods and services, in a knowledge based industry, where it adopts a policy of value-added growth rather than asset management (Capelli and McKersie, 1987, pp.443-4), treating employees as resourceful humans to be developed by humanistic policies makes good business sense. For organization, that as a part of its assets chooses to compete in a labor intensive, high volume, low cost industry, generating profits through increasing market share by cost leadership; HR policies involve treating employees as a variable input and a cost to be minimized. (M. Poole,” Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management”, Volume 1.)”. Jin, Y., Hopkins, M. M. and Wittmer, J. L. S. (2010) did put that for the HR is responsible for improving the accommodative nature of an employee and for capability improvement of an employee. The responsibilities of a Human resource manager: “The human resource management department is a coach/ counselor /adviser to the teams.” (David K. Banner, W. Anthony Kulisch , Newman S. Peery (1992) ). With the reference of an article presented by Sheetal Mandora (Published: 8/20/2010) and the traditional definition of HR, the heart of HRM responsibilities are: * Recruitment * Hiring employees * Training and developing employees * Consultations for employees * Advocating company policies * Wages and benefits * Team work and team spirit * Relations amongst employees * Significance of strategies “The HRM have to fill these needs, since recruiting, training and educating new employees is important in maintaining the high standards of the organization”(an article by Dpoon). “Other than the above mentioned HR manager responsibilities, there are various other roles and HR manager duties in an organization like, security, handling travel and tickets, etc. “(Sheetal Mandora (Published: 8/20/2010)). The Capabilities of Human Resource Manager: A Human resource manager should have specific capabilities, skills and behavior for successful handling of responsibilities and for achieving the objectives. As per the article written by Dpoon, Human resource manager has to have leadership qualities. He further stated the extra qualities one should maintain for having bright future in HR department. “1. Effective coaches and leaders should define the boundaries of his relationship with his managers. 2. You should also pay attention to your team's concerns and issues. Allow yourself to receive feedbacks and comments on what areas you want to improve on. 3. Help the manager to obtain a 360 degree feedback and implement action plans to increase his capabilities as a good leader. 4. As a human resource management leader, you should push the window with each manager in assisting each employee to grow professionally. It is also important to promote the success of each employee in the company. 5. A good leader should always listen to his personnel in the organization. You should allow ideas and thoughts of your employees to help form the vision and mission of the organization. 6. You should provide each employee what they want and deserve within his capabilities. You can share rewards to your team if the organization is performing well. 7. You can set the pace through your own expectations and by examples. 8. Always establish an environment of continuous improvement. 9. Provide new opportunities to employees who deserve to grow. This can be professionally or personally. Success of businesses may depend on the capabilities of a good human resource management. Recruiting good leaders that want to take advantage of the knowledge, experience, and thoughtfulness of talented employees is important.” (Dpoon). According to the book written by D. Torrington, L. Hall, and S. Taylor, to have a bright future in HR department what one desperately needed to have are the interaction skills. The book listed different main functional areas of HRM, and the focused on the desired skills of HRM in that particular functional area such as: 1. “The core expertise of HR specialists is skill in interaction and handling of face – to – face situations effectively is essential throughout human resource management. “(Human resource management, p. 93) 2. “Central to all resourcing is the selection interview. HR specialists have a critical role in selection interviewing, carrying out many of the interviews and encouraging good interviewing practice in others by example- Support and training.” (Human resource management, p. 231) . 3. Interactive skills needed for appraisal interviews. It is more important for a HR to take care of appraisee at the time of interview and to create friendly environment. “The mood needs to be light, but not trivial, as the appraisee has to be encouraged towards candour rather than gamesmanship.” (Human resource management, p. 364) 4. Interactive skill : Coaching and Presentation : “Although coaching is a skill it is not simply an encounter that has to be managed, it is a skill in managing a relationship.”(Human resource management, p. 469 ). 5. “Grievance and disciplinary interviewing: This type of interactive skill focuses on skills, namely conflict resolution.”(Human resource management, p. 615). 6. “Interactive skill: Negotiation has developed into the major mode of decision making in all aspects of social, political and business life.” (Human resource management, p. 716). 7. “Interactive skill: Chairing meetings is a challenging skill but a rewarding aspect of human resource management.” (Human resource management, p. 845). All the above skills are essential for a HR to be a good leader. “The wise leader uses the force from within to inspire and motivate his people. Without the leader, an organisation, a society and a country are merely collection of people (Sheh, 2003).”( S.K. Pandey O.P. Wali, Journal Of Human Values 16:1 (2010): 57–70). The Effect of the HRM department on organization: To study the effect of HRM, here it is included the reference of ”Human resource management at McDonald’s (July, 2009).” According to this article McDonald’s was suffering from negative reputation in the media because of obese food quality and loser-employer issues i.e. poor quality of workers. McDonald’s Human resource manager was responsible for handling both the effective workforce and the customers. HR manager was responsible for motivating the employees too. “A good manager will therefore 'solve' the problem of resistance or discontent through good communication.” (Human resource management at McDonald’s (July, 2009) ). References: 1. Peter J., K.Kidger,PhD thesis,1999,Salford University-library, Human Resource Management in multinational enterprise. 2. M.Poole,” Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management”, Volume 1. 3. Jin, Y., Hopkins, M. M. and Wittmer, J. L. S. (2010), Linking human capital to competitive advantages: Flexibility in a manufacturing firm's supply chain. Human Resource Management, 49: 939–963. Doi : 10.1002/hrm.20385 4. S.K. Pandey, O.P. Wali, Journal Of Human Values 16:1 (2010): 57–70. 5. Torrington D., Hall L., Taylor S. (2008)“Human Resource Management”, 7th edition, Great Britain, Pearson Education Ltd. 6. Human resource management At McDonald’s(July ,2009). 7.An article by Dapoon, 8. An article by Sheetal Mandora (2010)< http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hr-manager-responsibilities.html> 9. K.Bredin,J.Soderlund(2006)-“ HRM and project intensification in R&D-based companies: a study of Volvo Car Corporation and AstraZeneca” Human resource management journal, Vol.36, Issue 5, 467-551. 10. David K. Banner, W. Anthony Kulisch , Newman S. Peery (1992)”Self-managing work team (SMWT) and the Human Resource function” Management Decision. Vol. 30 No. 3, 1992. pp. 40-45, MCB University Press Limited. 0025-1747 11. 12. 13. 14. Belout A, Gauvreau C. ,” Factors influencing project success: the impact of human resource management”, International Journal of Project Management,Volume 22, Issue 1, January 2004, Pages 1-11 . 15. Fisher E. (2010),” What practitioners consider to be the skills and behaviors of an effective people project manager”, International journal of project management, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.09.002