Is HRM an Effective Approach to Managing People at Work - Essay Example

? Is Human Resource Management an effective approach to managing people at work? Introduction Man, material, machine and money are the four M’s of organizational resources; however, human resources seem to be the most important one. All the resources in an organization need the supervision from human elements for its effective functioning. For example, machineries are one of the most important resources of an organization. Machineries will be passive resources unless they are controlled and operated by human workforce. It should be noted that only the human resources has natural intelligence whereas the machineries have only artificial intelligence. Since human intelligence is much more advanced than artificial intelligence, an organization cannot neglect the importance of manpower and human intelligence under any circumstances. Human resource management or HRM is one of the major divisions of every organization. The success and failures of the organization depends on the functioning of the HRM wing. According to Torrington et al. (2011), “Human resource management (HRM) is the basis of all management activity”(Torrington et al., 2011, p.4). In other words, all the organizational activities start from the HR department. HR is responsible for assigning duties to the employees of an organization. Human resource management theories are undergoing rapid changes because of the changes in life styles and advancements in science and technology. Earlier, employees were more interested in getting decent salaries. However, current employees are not only interested in getting decent salaries, but also in getting proper work culture, environment and opportunities to keep a balance between work and life. Effectiveness of HRM lies in keeping a balance between the employee interests and that of the organization’s interests. This paper analyses the effectiveness of human resource management in managing people in an organization with the help of HRM theories and practical examples. Internet, journal articles, books and other periodicals are used for collecting secondary data to write this paper. What is HRM? It is difficult to define HRM in few words because of the complex functions associated with it. Generally speaking “HRM is the process of managing people in organizations in a structured and thorough manner” (Human Resource Management (HRM), 2012). HR department is responsible for recruitment, retention, allocation of suitable jobs, training and development of employees. A right person at the right place at the right time is always beneficial to an organization and it is the duty of HR to ensure it. Even though unemployment is a big problem in many of the countries, lack of skilled manpower is creating major problems to organizations. It is the duty of the HR to identify best talents from the employment market so that the organization will always have the se4rvices of extremely good talents. Competition is growing day by day and as a result of that, organizations are competing each other for recruiting best talents. As a result of that employee retention is a major problem nowadays. HR department is responsible for employee retention. Training and development is another major HR function. No employee can develop properly if the organization fails to provide adequate training to them. Knowledge explosion and technological advancements forced organizations to give more importance to training of employees. HR is responsible for training also. It should be noted that the responsibilities of HR will be over after recruitment, retention, and training. Allocation of suitable jobs to the employees is another major HR function. A smart employee at the wrong place may bring more harm than good to an organization. For example, an employee who has sales skills should be appointed only in the sales department in order to derive maximum efficiency out of him. If the organization wrongly places him in some other departments, he may not deliver the goods. In short, effectiveness of HRM depends on talent identification, employee retention, employee training and development and allocation of suitable jobs to the employees. Effectiveness of HRM: Critical analysis Recent research has highlighted a so-called "prime building block" of HRM – the principle of "AMO". There must be sufficient employees with the necessary ABILITY (skills, knowledge and experience) to do the job; there must be adequate MOTIVATION for them to apply their abilities; and there must be the OPPORTUNITY for them to engage in "discretionary behavior" – to make choices about how their job is done (Buchan, 2004, p.3). Organizations with capable employees may function better than other organizations. As mentioned earlier, employee capabilities are the major pillars upon which an organization can construct its business strategies. Even reputed organizations failed in the past because of incapable or inefficient employees. For example, until the entry of globalization and liberalization, Parker Pen Company was one of the most reputed companies in the world. However, they are not so now because of incapable employees. The top executives in Parker Company tried to market their products all over the world with the help of a standardized marketing campaign. They miscalculated that for same product, same marketing strategies are necessary everywhere. They failed to recognize the fact that even for same product, different marketing strategies are necessary in different markets because of the huge economic, social, environmental and political differences in global markets. The success and failures of HRM depends on the ability of HRM to motivate the employees all the time. Since the needs of the employees are changing rapidly, this task seems to be extremely difficult. Rewards, complements and in certain cases, punishments will help HRM to maintain a good level of motivation among employees. Career opportunities can also motivate the employees to avoid thinking in terms of joining another organization. Working environment or work culture in an organization is another important factor which affects the employees positively or negatively. HR professionals should make sure that the organization is maintaining a good work culture all the time and the employees do not have many complaints about the management. If markets were perfectly competitive, firms would be able to arrive at an optimal mix of HRM and workplace policies. Management failure results, at least partially, from ambiguities in short- versus long-term goals. Depending on how these goals are defined, management may focus on some policies and not on others. A good example would be investment in training which may receive a bigger emphasis in organizations with longer term objectives than in organizations with short-term objectives (Verma, 2005, p.419) Many organizations have the habit of maintaining good standards in its HRM policies when the opportunities in the market are more. Organizations may reveal their original shape at the time of market failures. The recent recession caused many problems to even prominent organizations. Many organizations reduced their work force considerably. Moreover, many employees suffered huge salary cuts. In fact organizations used recession problems to terminate the services of inefficient employees. However, such practices will negatively affect the organization in the long run. The reputation of a company will be spoiled drastically if the HR professionals continue with the termination and salary cut like anti-employee policies. Employees may show reluctance in joining such organizations in future. According to a survey conducted among 677 employees by Welbourne (2010), 38% are of the view that HR departments were fast whereas 60% claimed their HR teams were accurate (Welbourne, 2010, p.975). The above results clearly suggest that majority of the HR departments are slow in responding to the changes happening in the organizational world. It should be noted that knowledge is bursting virtually from every corner in every second, as a result of huge developments science and technology. Knowledge management is a big problem to many of the organizations. Rapid advancements in digital electronic technologies brought huge changes in the field of computers and internet. Many of the offline businesses are currently becoming online businesses as a result of the advancements in computer related technologies. Moreover, business strategies are also changing day by day. For example, modern sales professionals are using internet more frequently for canvassing customers instead of traditional sales canvassing methods. HR is responsible for educating employees with respect to the changes happening around the organization. However, in many organizations HR is slow responding to the changes as per the findings of Welbourne. According to Paauwe & Boselie (2005), “the main objectives of 'strategic' HRM are to identify and recruit strong performers, provide them with the abilities and confidence to work effectively, monitor their progress towards the required performance targets, and reward staff well” (Paauwe&Boselie, 2005, p.69). Many of the HR departments in organizations are giving preferences to the organizational needs and personal interests of the employees are often been neglected. Many of the HR professionals have the illusion that good salary, better working conditions, rewards and complements will satisfy the employee fully. Apart from organizational commitments, employees have many personal commitments. Since man is a social animal, it is necessary for him to socialize properly with friends and relatives to maintain his physical as well as mental health. In other words, work life balancing is an important subject for the current employees and many of the HR departments are giving least importance to it. The above fact can be made clearer with the following example. Apple Inc. is one of the most reputed companies in the world at present. It provides extremely good salary packages to its employees. However, Apple’s work culture is extremely demanding and as a result of that employee turnover rate from apple is extremely high. HRM practices in Apple is often been questioned because of the over workloads of Apple employees. Qumer (2009) has pointed out that “Unfairness in promotions and overall treatment is a common complaint in Apple Company” (Qumer, 2009, p.15). Moreover, allegations with respect to racial discriminations and biased approaches to employee promotions are some other reasons for employee dropouts from Apple. The above example clearly suggests that psychological needs of the current employees are more important than their physical needs and even reputed organizations like Apple Inc. failed to recognize it. HRM practices focus particularly on employee development, the encouragement of learning and knowledge management. So, if we have managed to create a workforce that is eager to learn, displays a willingness to change, is adaptive, flexible, etc, then we have developed through our HRM systems the kind of knowledge, skills and abilities on which we can realize a whole range of strategic options (Paauwe & Boselie, 2005, p.79). The distance between the employee and the employer should be reduced considerably in order to motivate the employees properly to deliver the goods. It should be noted that the employee interests and the organization’s interests may not travel always in parallel direction. Employees believe in the philosophy of “work less; earn more” whereas employers believe in the philosophy of “force the employees to work hard; pay less”. These two philosophies will never travel in parallel direction. The success of HRM lies in bringing a compromise between the employee interests and the employer interests. In short, HRM acts as a bridge between the employee and the employer. Conclusions Human resource management is an effective approach to managing people if and only if the organization is ready to implement periodical changes in its HRM strategies. The needs of the organization and that of the employee are inversely proportional and the success of HRM lies in making a compromise between these two contrasting interests. For an organization, the most important asset it its workforce; all the other organizational resources are secondary to manpower. The success and failures of the organization depend on the capabilities of HRM in managing the workforce effectively. One of the major criticisms labeled against modern day HRM practices is the slowness in responding to the changes. Science and technology is developing rapidly and subsequently organizations are also undergoing rapid changes. It is essential for HRM to keep in pace with the changes happening in the organizational world. In a heavily globalized and competitive business world, HRM strategies have the power to make or break an organization. Organizations which are ready to make periodical changes in HRM strategies may survive whereas other organizations may struggle for survival. References 1. Buchan J. (2004). What difference does ("good") HRM make?. Human Resources for Health 2004, 2:6. EBSCOHost. 2. Human Resource Management (HRM), (2012). [Online] Available at: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/human-resource-management.htm [Accessed on 21 January 2012] 3. Paauwe J & Boselie P. (2005). HRM and performance: what next? Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 15, no 4, pages 68-83 4. Qumer S.M, (2009), Apple Inc’s corporate culture: The good, the bad and the ugly, ICMR Center for Management research, www. Icmrindia.org 5. Torrington, D., Hall L., Taylor, S. & Dr. Atkinson C. (2011). Human Resource Management. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 8 edition (6 Jan 2011). 6. Verma A. (2005). What Do Unions Do to the Workplace? Journal Of Labor Research Volume XXVI, Number 3 Summer 2005 7. Welbourne T.M. (2010). Fast And Accurate: What Is Important For Hrm? Human Resource Management, November–December 2010, Vol. 49, No. 6, Pp. 975–976. 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/hrm.20398 Read More