An Important Element in Organizational Success - Case Study Example

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT To what extent is HR a distinctive discipline and to what extent is HR expertise required of all managers? Outline the basis on which HR makes a full contribution to the effective and profitable operations of an organization Name Instructor Course Date a)Introduction 3 b)The distinctive Nature of HR 6 c) What Extent Is HR Expertise Required Of All Managers? 10 d)HR makes a full contribution to the effective and profitable operations of an organization 11 Bibliography 13 Strategic Human Resource Management a) Introduction Human Resource (HR) plays a crucial role in ensuring success in both public and private organizations around the world as well as for organizations of all sizes. Human resources refer to the people within an organization, who participate actively in the organization’s production process or conducting its business process to ensure it meets its objectives. Human resources management, on the other hand, refers to the process of identifying developing, and managing individuals in an organization to ensure it meets its vision. Therefore, human resource is an important element in organizational success. Firstly, human resource basically entails managing people in organizations. Some scholars define the concept if human resources as the simple process of hiring and firing people in organizations. Nevertheless, Human Resources is a broad concept in management, which involves the process of recruitment, employee welfare management, compensation and benefits, and legal compliance among other organizational processes. With all these crucial functions, HR is not only important for its departmental role in a company, but rather for the overall sustenance of the organization. HR brings together all departments in organizations through efficient management of the people by empowering them, to be more productive in executing their functions. According to Cheatle (2001), human resource is an important function of organization related to the principle of managing the organization’s workforce to ensure it is highly skilled, motivated, engaged, and focused on delivering its mandate. Therefore, HR as a concept can be understood in four major parts namely- the welfare of the workforce, organizational control and Policy making, strategic planning, and operational. The welfare of employees or the workforce is the most basic function of HR, which relates to the ability of the organization to provide the best possible environment for its employees to perform better. This implies availing the required resources such as tools, time and necessary motivation. The element of policy making and organization control in HR relates to the process of enacting interventions and polices concerning employee salaries, training, recruitment procedures and working conditions. This is also closely related to the operational element of HR. It ensures that the organization is able to function effectively with the right people in charge of all positions (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 47). Finally, the strategic planning element of HR ensures that long term planning for the organization to give it a competitive advantage over its main competitors in the industry. Despite emerging as independence disciple in in the later parts of the 19th century, the origins of HR can be traced back to the pre-industrial period. The development and progress made in the HR discipline can be categorized into four major sections. Firstly, it’s the emergence of the discipline during the preindustrial period. During this time, the main important role of HR in organizations was to maintain equity and fairness. Though not exactly defined as an HR role, management of people in the preindustrial ear aimed at ensuring equal participation and access to resources. In the next period, the paternalist period, HR focused on enhancing productivity in organizations. This period lasted for the greater part of the 18th century and involved activities such as improving the life expectancies of workers and improving their general working and living conditions. The third developmental period came in the later stages of the 19th century and mainly focused towards building strong bureaucratic systems within HR that would improve accountability in managing the welfare of people in an organization. Bureaucracies entailed increased specialization since the most organizations had grown in size this ensured that different HR personnel focused their attention on different issues with the general objective of making the organization functional. For instance, some employees could work on the recruitment process, while other worked on improving the welfare of employees and enacting various policy measures to improve the working conditions. In the final stage, the development of HR focused on maintaining high performance levels at both individual and organizational levels. These developments in HR are important in understanding the general concerns of HR over the years and how the role of the HR has transformed over the years. This is crucial in determining whether HR is unique and distinct as a discipline or whether it has been helped by developments in other disciplines. Similarly, the brief historical description of the progress made in HR can also indicate whether HR knowledge is a preserve of the HR department or whether other managers in an organization need to have the same knowledge in order to improve their managerial roles. Human resource management became an indispensable function of modern day organizations in the late 19th century, and has proven to be very crucial for strategic planning and delivery of business outcomes in across all industries (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 63). Since its inception, HR has also evolved into a broad discipline with its own theoretical frameworks and scientific methodologies that distinguish it from any management field. The discipline has also evolved into numerous other branches such as strategic human resource management that all focus improving different aspects of the organization’s workforce. The contribution of HR in organizational success across all industries cannot be understated. Nevertheless there remains a few areas of disagreements among managers and scholars in the field over the scope and significance of HR in contemporary organizations. For instance, some scholars are of the opinion that other organizations with a characteristically smaller workforce do not need to have a fully function human resource department. On the other hand, there are those who are of the opinion that HR is an indispensable element of organizational performance, regardless of the size or nature of the organizations (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 77). In the same regard, there is no consensus as to whether HR knowledge should remain a preserve of HR practitioners, or whether it should be accessible to all managers. Consequently, the question as to whether HR has its distinctive nature or whether other managers have expertise in HR is a long-standing issue in management. This paper analyzes the significance of Human Resources in contemporary organization from the point of view of the scope of the discipline. The essay analyzes the extent to which HR is a distinct discipline and function of organizations while also exploring whether other managers in the organization need to have some expertise in HR in order to improve their overall managerial skills. Secondly, the paper also outlines the contribution that HR makes towards the overall success and efficiency in contemporary organizations. In order to address the specific concerns of this question, this paper will be structured in three main parts. The first part will provide a brief description and background of Human resources in organizations. The second part will illustrate how human resources knowledge is used by all managers in a firm. Finally, the paper will focus on discussing how human resource contributes to the effectiveness and profitable operations in contemporary businesses. b) The distinctive Nature of HR Human Resource is a very distinct and unique managerial discipline that plays a significant role in an organization. In order to understand the distinct nature of the HR department, it is important to understand the unique role or functions that the HR executes in an organization. The HR department has six core roles in an organization (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 81). The first important role of the HR department is recruitment. This involves looking for the right talent, skills, and experience to fill in vacant positions within an organization. Different factors affect the recruitment process, including the number of available positions, the resources available and the time needed to fill in the vacancies. The HR personnel in an organization engage in processes such as jib advertisements, screening applicants, conducting interviews, and hiring the selected individuals. The other HR role in the organization is ensuring workplace safety. Safety in the workplace is a legal requirement that is mandatory for all organizations to comply with. The HR department must ensure that the organization puts the safety of its employees as a priority. This involves setting safety procedures, training employees on managing their safety in the workplace and setting up structures to respond to emergency situations and injuries in the workplace. The HR works with other specialists to ensure compensation where necessary in case employees are injured in the workplace. In this regard, the HR manages a log or record for workplace related injuries and fatalities. Another crucial role of the HR is managing employee relations in an organization. Employee relations management is a HR process aimed at improving the relations between the employees and their employers (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 96). This involves strengthening factors such as job satisfaction, conflict resolution, diversity, and employee engagement in the workplace. In organizations that deal with unionized employees, it is the role of the HR to maintain perfect relations with the unions representing the employees through maintaining appropriate labor relations, negotiating collective agreements, among other related services. The HR also plays the role of providing compensation and benefits to employees in the organization. Some of the HR functions related to compensation and benefits include evaluating competitive pay practices, establishing compensation structures, negotiating for benefits such as health coverage with insurers, and coordinating activities such as retirement savings for the employees. Another critical role of HR that makes the discipline unique and distinct is compliance. Different nations and jurisdictions have numerous pieces of legislation regulating business practices in various industries and for different organizations. Some of these laws affect the organization’s workforce. It is the responsibility of the HR department to ensure the organization complies with laws covering recruitment the recruitment t process, health and safety in the workplace, and inclusion among others. Noncompliance can result in unfair treatment of some employees or stakeholders in the organization, leading to increased complaints and legal sanctions (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 137). Therefore, the HR has to ensure that the organization complies with laws such as the Civil Rights legislation (title VII), the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act among others. Finally, the HR plays the role of training and development to strengthen the workforce of the organization. This role relates to the function of HR in [providing the best environment for the employees to be productive in their work. This role entails giving new employees sufficient orientation during the induction period with an objective of training them to transition into the organizations culture. In some cases, the HR may be involved in professional development of employees through organized formal training and further education programs to improve the knowledge and skills of the workforce. Some organizations may simply train their employees on leadership development to help them become future leaders in the organization. The roles of HR discussed above paint the picture of a HR department and its role in contemporary organizations. These roles give the HR a characteristically distinct nature that focuses on empowering the organization’s workforce as opposed to other management roles in organizations, which seek to improve aspects such as planning, production, and sales performance. In addition to the roles and functions that make HR distinct, the personnel executing the roles must possess unique qualities and skills in order to be able to execute the functions associated with HR. The HR must possess strong organizational, relationship and communication skills in order to manage the workforce effectively. All these factors contribute towards making HR a unique field in organizational management. The HR manager should have excellent bargaining skills in order to be successful in this role. This is because there are several situations that will require the HR personnel to be engaged in negotiations with employees or their representative unions. Good bargaining skills will come in handy in resoling any standoff that may hamper the organization from achieving its objectives. In most cases, the HR manager will represent the organization as the spokesperson during any such negotiations. Another critical skill of HR managers is organizational skills. The HR manager needs to be able to plan and organization the people within an organization to ensure that their potential is utilized in the best way possible. Therefore, the H must be able to identify talents and abilities in the workforce and match those talents with the jobs and tasks available in then organization to ensure that every task is completed in the best way within the required timeframe. Another important element in HR is manpower analysis. AS an HR manager, one should be able to read, understand and analyze the human resource pool at his or her disposal in order to make the right judgments. For instance, as the BBC states, it is important to have in place a manpower that reflects the wishes and desires of a company. If a business wishes to expand its operations in to a foreign country, most of its workers have to be able to speak and understand the local language and embrace the local culture. This will go a long way in ensuring the company’s communication strategy remains effective as well as its overall business functions. In the instance of the Chinese firm Dalian Wanda Company expanding into Switzerland with its purchase of Sports & Media, it is expected that the Chinese company will recruit a reliable workforce consisting of the local Swiss people. The level of competence and expertise needed for HR personnel to be effective depends on various factors including the size of an organization. For instance, HR managers in smaller firms tend t be more effective because they manage smaller numbers of employees. However, many larger organizations increase their HR manage efficiency through specialization; where every individual employee works on a specific task. Nonetheless, HR functions grow and expand as the organization grows with time. For instance, the human resources at British Airways are very different from those at Virgin airways. British Airways is a traditional form that has been in the industry for a long time, while Virgin Airways is a relatively new company in the industry. Consequently, the HR function at British Airways is more developed and robust in comparison to the situation at Virgin Airways. Similarly, the employees at British Airways have relatively better working conditions than those at Virgin Airways in terms of their pay and living standards. c) What Extent Is HR Expertise Required Of All Managers? In as much as HR is a distinct discipline, there are certain elements if HR that are crucial for execution of other managerial roles in an organization. Therefore, the HR department is closely related to other departments in an organization. Managers in other departments need to have a certain level of expertise and knowledge in HR in order to execute their roles effectively. Generally, management is a process that deals with addressing different needs of people in and outside the organization. Managers are accountable to the stakeholders of their organizations, hence the need to maintain perfect relations with the people who have vested interests in their functions (Cheatle, 2001 pp. 141). Furthermore, organizations are set out to serve people. Therefore, basic expertise in managing people is very critical for the success of any manager in an organization. Consequently, all managers need to have a sufficient level of HR knowledge and expertise in order to be able to manage the people around them and the broader category of stakeholders. For instance, managers are charged with the responsibility of allocating resources at their disposal to different processes in an organization in order to ensure there is improved performance in achieving the desired objectives. Having sufficient knowledge and expertise in HR will enable other managers in the organization to evaluate the human resource around them and determine the best ways to maximize their potential for the betterment of the organization. d) HR makes a full contribution to the effective and profitable operations of an organization As discussed in the sections above, HR is an indispensable function for contemporary organizations. The HR department plays a crucial role in ensuring organizational efficiency and contributes towards profitable operations in an organization. Organizational effectiveness is essential for modern day organization in driving in success. Organizational effectiveness has a huge influence on the profitability if an organization. It also allows for better development of opportunities and higher investments in the firm. Maintaining effectiveness and profitability is a role of all managers, including the HR, who also has to take a significant share of the role. The HR plays the role of identifying gaps within the workforce of an organization and determining on the best strategies and mechanisms of addressing any such gaps. The HR department is also the only department that links to all other departments in an organization, by maintaining strong relations among all managers and employees. Therefore, the HR can use this role to strategically influence managerial decisions in order to address imminent issues within the workforce with the objective of building stronger human resources capable of executing the strategic plans of the organization. This will eventually contribute towards organizational success as the people in the organization will have gained the necessary skills, experience, and knowledge to execute their mandate. Previous studies in HR have pointed to the fact that better and improved HR practices have a direct impact on the increased organizational performance and success. Specifically, extensive recruitment, selection, and training procedures; formal information sharing, attitude assessment, job design, grievance procedures, and labor-management participation programs and performance appraisal, promotion, and incentive compensation systems that recognize and reward employee merit have all been widely linked with valued firm-level outcomes. For profit making organization, the role of the HR should be to help the company maximize its wealth to get more profits through efficient management of the human resources available. This includes employing the best practices in managing the employees in the organization to boost their knowledge, skills, expedience, and motivation to ensure they perform at their optimal level. The role of The HR in private profit making organizations is not only limited to managing the employees, bit also extends to ensuring other key stakeholders in the organization such as the customers are equally happy. In this regard, the HR works with other managers and employees in the organization in ensuring provision of high quality services. This involves conducting customer surveys and getting appropriate feedback regarding the level of satisfaction. Similarly, the HR has to empower the employees in the organization to be effective in discharging their role. This can be done through training band development to improve the level of skills among the employees. Bibliography Cheatle, K. (2001). Mastering human resource management. City of publication: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More