The Changing Role of HR - Coursework Example

The Changing Role of HR The modern day organisation depends to a great extent on the contribution and quality of its human capital. The human capital may be defined as that element of the organisation’s operational sphere that is a living, breathing part of the activities that put the innate resources and factors of production into application. This application results in profits arising out of the activities of the human capital and the efficiency with which this resource carries out its tasks. This in turn, has a bearing on the achievement of the organisation’s goals. (Johnson, 1996. P 13 to 18) This paper seeks to critically analyse the new role of the Human Resource element that has emerged in the organisation. It may be seen in the case study of advanced economies, that the HR in an organisation depends on the informal relationships within the operational sphere. This is turn has given rise to a new found role in four categories. This role has been based on the case of advanced countries as demonstrated by Williams et al (2006) in the paper titled Harnessing the Hidden Enterprise Culture of Advanced Economies. The findings of this paper will be discussed through the use of the following categories: Business Partner Change Manager Monitor Innovator. Business Partner The first role of the human resource in advanced countries is that of a business partner. This has come to the fore with the emergence of various service oriented companies that provide intensive marketing services along with the products that are being produced. (Williams et al, 2006) The emergence of a marketing network has been crucial to companies like Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Oriflame Cosmetics and many others. (Green, 2002. P 111) The business partner method operates along the following lines, as depicted in the diagram below: Branch Manager ↑ Sales Team Manager ↑ Team of Business Partners (Sales Agent) (Green, 2002) These business partners work independently from home or under the name of their own business in order to cater to people exclusively and bring the products and services of the company to the doorstep of the independent clients. The role of these business partners is to bring business to the company by exploring their personal networks so as to earn commissions on the sales that they make. (Williams et al, 2006) This is a formal level of institutionalised operations where the organisation profits greatly. The advantage of this is that the business partners take a personal interest in the development of a clientele. (Green, 2002. P 111) Further, this serves the two fold purpose of sales and promotion. While there might not be immediate sales in some cases, there is a creation of awareness for future sales. This in turn, leads to increased sales and repeat orders through word of mouth and brand recall. (Williams et al, 2006) At an informal level, the term business partner can be used to denote the modern day human resource base. This is due to the fact that the human capital in an organisation today is motivated enough to integrate the personal goals with those of the organisation in an effective way. In this way, the goals are achieved at both ends. In advanced countries, the management of an organisation attaches great importance to the act of motivating the human capital through the use of incentives that may be material or immaterial. (Williams et al, 2006) The material benefits include bonuses, promotions and other such means, while the immaterial ones include good reports and feedback. This helps the employee gain confidence and self esteem. Also, it caters to the employees need to achieve a certain social standing. Thus, the employee begins to realise that only by forwarding the goals of the organisation will his or her own goals be met. In this way, the human resource has emerged as a business partner that works in tandem with the organisation as far as goal achievement is concerned. (Green, 2002. P 111) Change Manager The modern day economy of an advanced country is one that is changing with each passing day. The state of commerce is not what it used to be, say, a few decades ago. This is basically due to the fact that the new rule of thumb is that the only constant is change. (Williams et al, 2006) The face of politics has greatly shaped the way the economy of a country and therefore, that of an organisation, operates. In this way, there is a sense of constant interaction with the dynamic environment within which organisations today thrive. The role of communication and technology in this regard, is also an important one. With the advent of the communication and information era, there is a slow redefinition of borders and geographical demarcations. It is now possible to sell products and manage businesses anywhere in the world, from anywhere in the world. This has had a large bearing on the state of the balance of payments of entire countries and the organisations that thrive within it. Therefore, change has become a vital part of the organisation’s life, owing to the fact that there is a constant need for reinvention in order to keep with the changing times and the changing levels of exposure. In this regard, change management has thus become a vital part of every organisation’s agenda. (Jorge et al, 2005) In this regard, the HR elements of the organisation in advanced countries, or its employees, are the major precursors of change within the organisation. (Williams et al, 2006) They are the ones who implement the change management process at the following levels of activity: Communication Planning Resource Utilisation Cost effectiveness in Operations (Jorge et al, 2005) This makes the employees or the HR, change managers within the organisation. The impetus to change and grow with these changes comes from the fact that the modern day organisation is made up of people from various corners of the globe, with the ability to reach into their own varied personal experiences. (Plous, 1993) Thus in turn, is a major factor that helps them cope with change and learn to keep changing with the changing times and trends. Also, sometimes change comes from within the organisation owing to the growth of exposure with the growth of the organisation or with activities like development and training. (Bender, 2000. P 125 to 127) The role of change management is as follows: To help recognise change. To help recognise the areas in which these changes must be implemented within the organisation. To help the organisation integrate its goals or modify the same, with a change in the external environment. To help the HR understand the change and grow with it. (Bender, 200. P 125 to 127) Monitor One of the most important roles or functions of the HR in advanced countries is to monitor various things within and outside the operational sphere of the organisation, so as to make the necessary modifications that will correct any deviations in the path towards the achievement of organisational goals. (Williams et al, 2006) The monitoring system in the modern day organisation thrives on a system of knowledge management. To monitor anything, there is a need for garnering knowledge about the same through communication and information. (Plous, 1993) This needs to follow the flow of the organisational activities so as to give the right person, the right information at the right time. In this regard, many scholars have felt that there is a need to lay well defined lines of informal communication as these are important to bridge any gaps that may have taken place in the formal lines of communication. (Bender, 2000. P 125 to 127) Knowledge and information have become almost interchangeable in their ability to transform workplaces and make the rest of the aware of the various activities that take place within it. Recognizing this premise, the company is providing result-oriented solutions to various industries. It is working with its alliance partners with an unmatched level of domain knowledge. It empowers organizations with inventive and scalable technology solutions thereby increasing the industry’s competitive advantage and return on investment. (Wilson, 2002) (Source: Wilson, 2002) This diagram depicts the growth of titles using knowledge management. In this regard, information management may be defined as something that involves deploying new technology solutions, e.g: content or document management systems, data warehousing and portal applications. It covers all the systems and processes in an organization for the creation and use of corporate information. Information is the most pervasive element across all human actions and interactions. (Wilson, 2002) Knowledge management encompasses strategy, method, practice and approach in an organizational context. Data represents facts or values of results and has the capacity to represent information. Patterns of relations of data, and information have the capacity to represent knowledge. This is important in monitoring the activities within the organization so as to curb any negative trends before they become a force. (Plous, 1993) This shows a strong connection with the premise that the HR today operates on in terms of the use of various tools of information technology to integrate the knowledge within the organization. This also promotes a stronger and wider base for communication. In this regard, modern HR practices show that communication management is a vital phenomenon in organization and is extremely important in an organization. (Barrie, 2005. P 1 to 10) Innovator Any modern day organisation and its HR need the strong backing of innovation for the following purposes: To meet goals effectively. For smooth flowing operations within the organisation. To imbibe an element of freshness into otherwise monotonous activities. To help the employees grow so as to fuel organisational growth and development. To gives the employees the satisfaction of learning something new everyday. To give the organisation the confidence to branch out into new fields. (Bender, 2000. P 125 to 127) With these functions, it is important to have a process of training and development which will help show the employees how they can channel their energies into constant innovation so as to serve the organisational goals, and achieve their personal ones in the bargain. (Williams et al, 2006) Training and development are essential activities for the maintenance of organizational health. Training takes place for strategic development of employees in order to correct any deviations in their performance towards the achievement of the organizational goal, or to help them tap into a certain pool of potential which will further their standing in the organization. The second kind of training adheres to preparing the employee for promotions and other such activities. Therefore, training and development processes may either be diagnostic or based on future role play. This role is a major element of innovation. (Barrie, 2005. P 1 to 10) The need for innovation is met through training due to the following features of the latter, which form the necessary context for innovation within the organisation: ( i ) Identification of needs – an analysis of needs addresses the problems at hand besides anticipating future demands. The benefit of this step lies in the fact that it considers the best and most cost effective way to meet those training needs right at the onset, which make the training strategy planning and implementation process more fluid. (Barrie, 2005. P 1 to 10) ( ii ) Definition of specific knowledge requirements - this stage to examines the skills and knowledge level that is required to be developed in order to meet the new objectives identified by the training needs. ( iii ) Planning process – This includes paying special attention to the training techniques that have been used in the past and their effectiveness. This helps show any deviations and how they may be modified or discarded entirely. ( iv ) Trainer Competence – For competence in communication and soft skills, it is crucial to have the right mix of all factors. One of these factors include the trainer. While the organization itself may have a training department, it may also source its training projects to external trainers. (Plous, 1993) ( v ) Evaluation of training – this is where the planners evaluate the training needs and prioritize them before carrying out a similar process of evaluation for the training strategy they have in mind so as to link the strategy with the needs and reach certain projections regarding success or failure. (Williams et al, 2006) ( vi ) Implementation process – In this regard, the assessment of the existing training methods are taken into consideration so as find the best option for making use of the training strategy in terms of development of individual areas. (Bender, 2000. P 125 to 127) References: Williams, Colin C; Windebank, Jan (2006) Harnessing the Hidden Enterprise Culture of Advanced Economies. International Journal of Manpower. 27 (6). Pp 535 – 551. Plous, Scott (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. McGraw Hill Humanities. Johnson, John (1996). Time to rebuild HR. Business Quarterly; Vol61. Pp 13 to 18 Green, Marnie (2002). Internal HR. Public Management Personal; Vol 31. P 111 Latre-Rufat, Jorge (2005) Beyond Raining Employee Benefit. Plan Review; Volume 59 Barrie, Charles. Moving Targets. Human Resources. Pp 1 to 10. Bender, S (2000) The transfer of knowledge and the retention of expertise. Journal of Knowledge Management. Pp. 125 to 127 Wilson, T D (2002). The non sense of Knowledge Management. Information Research, 8(1). Paper No. 144. Last accessed at http://informationr.net/ir/8- 1/paper141.html Read More