The Role and Purpose of Human Resource Management - Coursework Example

The Role and Purpose Human Resource Management Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction Over the past decades, Human Resource Management function has been under pressure to show its contribution to organizational performance. In this perspective, studies in strategic human resource management have made great developments in documenting the relationship between human resource management and organizational performance. In the twenty first century, it is becoming extremely apparent that effective management of human resources is a key source of competitive advantage, and it is the single most crucial determinant of a firm’s long-term performance. Human resource management is directly linked to organizational performance and sustainability due to its impact on organizational social atmosphere and ambidextrous learning. People are viewed as a strategic resource for attaining a competitive advantage. In this regard, HR management is important to most organizations and these organizations hold huge HR departments tasked with looking after employees, from recruitments, selection, training to disciplinary procedures. HR departments control equal prospects, safety, health, legal requirements and occupational health. For organizations to remain relevant and competitive in the modern business world, HRM is paramount. Human resources is considered the most essential wealth that organizations must maintain at all times. This paper evaluates how human resource management adds value to organizations with particular focus on diversity, selection and recruitment. Defining Human Resource Management Armstrong (2009) asserts that human resource management can be viewed as a set of interconnected policies with a philosophical and ideological underpinning. Human resource management comprises of a given constellation of assumptions and beliefs, a strategic thrust that informs decisions regarding management of people, the central participation of line managers and dependence upon a set of levers that shapes the employment link. Human resource management functions through human resource systems that include HR philosophies, policies, strategies, processes, programs and practices. An effective workforce is the stamina of any business given that an effectual and enthused workforce helps in the realization of a competitive advantage (Jackson & Werner, 2011). As a result, productive businesses invest in human resources with valuable HRM that streamlines hiring, training and other motivational practices that facilitate achievement of a competitive advantage. Valuable human resource management exemplifies skills of business goals through fostering services and programs for a labor force that links to the common policy of a firm. Human resource management entails the control of employees in an organization, and it is tasked with generating, executing and overseeing policies that guides the behaviors of employees and that of the firm towards its employees (Jackson & Werner, 2011). Human resources refers to the people working in a firm, hence, human resource management is employee management focusing on employees as assets of a firm. According to Armstrong (2009, p.3), the terms human resources (HR) and human resources management (HRM) replaced the term personnel management. Human resource management entails the coherent and strategic perspective to the management of a firm’s most valued assets. The valued assets include people working in organizations, who collectively or individually contribute to the attainment of organizational objectives. Role and Purpose of HRM HRM helps in human resource planning, selection and recruitments, development and training, career planning, risk management, promotion and transfer of employees. The main role of HRM is centered on the procedure of working with others to coordinate a firm’s human resources to achieve organizational goals (Jackson & Werner, 2011). Human resource management professionals spend most of their time in areas such as selection and recruitments, compensation and benefits, labor relations, safety and health, forecasting and performance evaluation. In recent years, the opportunities, issues and challenges in human resources management have considerably entailed assisting organizations to manage human capital, that is, talent management to involve hiring, retention, training and all activities pertaining to growing and developing organizational workforce. Human resource management also involves a diverse workforce, handling technological shifts, keeping up with government regulations and dealing with corporate restructuring. In virtually every occasion, firms have attempted to clearly define and focus on aspects that affect their success. One aspect that constantly receives more attention is people working for firms. Firms understand that their probability of sustained growth depends on learning to attain the maximum out of their workforce (Kumar, 2010). The success of firms is dependent on the capacity to attract, grow and retain a talented workforce. According to Kumar (2010), all actions of any firm are determined and initiated through individuals who make up that firm. Offices, plants, computers and other equipments found in modern firms are ineffective until human effort and direction is involved. Managing the human element in an organization is key and a most essential activity given that the success and growth of an organization depends on how well human recourse is managed (Kumar, 2010). The efficiency with which human resources are used and coordinated determines the success in attaining organizational goals. As a result, HRM is essential because it facilitates attraction and retention of talented workforce (Kumar, 2010). Human resource management also helps in meeting prospective challenges, forecasting and ensuring recruitments of competent professionals. The human factor of firms has become imperative over the years. Human resource management emphasis is on employees’ motivation through provision of different non-financial and financial incentives (Kumar, 2010). Conducive organizational atmosphere is also emphasized to allow employees to contribute their maximum on the attainment of organizational objectives. Productive management of human resources supports team spirit and team work among employees (Kumar, 2010). It provides excellent growth prospects to individuals who have the capacity to rise. Human resource management inspires employees to work with commitment and diligence. The key role of human resource management is the growth of employees and firms. Human resource management is involved in securing and growing individual worker’s talents besides executing programs that promote cooperation and communication among employees to facilitate organizational growth (Jackson & Werner, 2011). The principle role linked to human resource management entails staffing and job analysis, use and organization of workforce, evaluation of workforce performance, execution of reward systems, workforce maintenance and professional growth for employees. Attaining Competitive Advantage Through HRM The nature of human resource management is to bring about the complete use of organizational human resources that entails ensuring that employees work productively for their own benefits and that of their firms. According to Gracia (2004), an organization having scores of capabilities and resources is not sufficient to guarantee success. Competitive advantage surfaces from distinctive capabilities and resources that organizations control. Even though conventional sources of competitive advantage that include technologies, natural resources and economies of scale create value, sources are considerably easy to reproduce particularly in comparison to an intricate social structure such as an system of employment (Gracia, 2004). In this case, developed HR systems are a significant source of sustained competitive advantage. Human resource management constitutes a source of competitive advantage (See Figure 1). HR adds value to a firm because people differ in their abilities and capacities. HR practices are scarce because it is hard to get people who ensure high performance levels in the firms because of heterogeneity of labor markets. Their inimitability is as a result of the intricacy in duplicating people’s abilities, experience, knowledge and behaviors. In addition, the increased transaction cost that recruitments of people would engage can be a major obstacle to their acquisition or mobility (Gracia 2004). Employees are a resource that cannot be substituted because not everyone holds the same ability to get accustomed to different technologies and settings. Figure 1: HRM and Competitive Advantage Source: (Gracia 2004). Managers use HR practices such as appraisal, compensation systems, selection and training to determine, attract and retain high quality employees. They also use HR practices to influence the skills of people through the development and acquisition of human capital. Recruiting procedures that offer a huge team of qualified applicants combined with a valid and reliable selection regime hold great effect on the type and quality of skills possessed by new employees (Gracia, 2004). Offering informal and formal training such as fundamental skills training, coaching and on-the –job training furthers the growth of employees. Through hiring and developing talented employees and synergizing their contributions within a firm’s resource bundle, human resource management lays a strong foundation for sustained competitive advantage. In this regard, a firm’s HR policies if shaped properly offer an economically and direct major contribution to the performance of the firm. A firm that holds productive HR systems through incorporating HR practices to utilize the potential for synergies among these practices holds the ability to acknowledge the intrinsic value of human resource management in developing novel strategies before its competitors (Gracia, 2004). Even though Human resource management is not an adequate condition in itself to ensure competitive advantage, it plays a crucial role in stimulating change and start a procedure that leads to a more far-reaching tapping of the firm’s concealed reservoir. However, human resource management can only ensure competitive advantage when productive resource mobility obstacles exist. Human resource management practices affects individual employee’s performance via influence on motivation and skills of employees (Armstrong, 2009). If HRM practices augment the flexible efforts of employees, they also directly affect intermediate outcomes which include productivity and turnover that employees hold direct control on. To develop an organizational ability, employee competences must be developed and retained via productive HR management. Sustainable competitive advantage can be attained via human resource management and organizational culture. However, to attain competitive advantage through human resource management, human capital must be unique value adding and non-substitutable. To ensure that an organization attains a competitive advantage, selecting talented and diverse employees is essential. HR practices and policies should be assessed to identify obstacles and prospects for organizational growth (Armstrong, 2009). Function towards enhanced and increased workplace diversity is simple and only requires strong HR practices. Workforce diversity handles dissimilarities amid people within a certain firm. Diversity refers to the inclusion of all groups of people at all organizational levels. Diversity, Recruitment and Selection While there are numerous means through which firms can achieve a competitive advantage over their competitors, one of the most sustainable and direct mean is through creating and leveraging disparities in human capital. According to Roberson (2013), when firms acquire and retain employees with greater knowledge, abilities and skills than their competitors, they are at a better position to prosper. The first stage toward achieving competitive advantage is via strategic employee staffing initiatives. For instance, firms can use recruitment as a strategy to attract the most favorable applicants. Recruitment refers to the organizational decisions and practices that impact either the types or the number of individuals that are willing to apply for a job (Roberson, 2013). Selection, on the other hand, entails a set of activities linked to choosing the right candidate for a given position. The recruitment and selection procedure entails defining human resource requirement, attracting suitable candidates, choosing suitable selection techniques and selecting the right applicants. Firms can also direct their personnel selection systems to identify those applicants who are most appropriate and would assist a firm in achieving its major goals. Effective HRM strategies should guarantee effective, efficient and fair recruitment and selection processes. Recruiting the right people helps in reducing labor turnover, operational costs besides increasing the morale of the already existing taskforce, aspects that helps organizations in gaining a competitive edge over their competitors. The right and qualified employees remain connected and offer their best for the benefit of their firms (Nankervis & Morrissey, 2009). The right and qualified employees give commitment and flexibility that an organization requires in attaining a competitive edge. Firms cannot depend on conventional homogeneous applicant sources or conventional staffing perspectives to remain competitive. Today’s and future best employees are diverse in several means and firms need to consider diversity staffing that are designed to entice, access and categorize talent among the diverse applicant pool. Nevertheless, scores of organizations have problems in adapting their practices and policies in reaction to the shifting labor market demographics. This is because some many organizations hold specific HR practices and policies that do not allow recruitment and selection of the minorities, disabled, women and the aging in the society. Such firms find it hard to adjust and embrace these changes in the labor market. The emerging blueprints are because of changing birth rates, immigrations and equal employment laws. For instance, BP PLC, a multinational company recruits and selects people from dissimilar cultural, religious and racial background. BP embraces a workforce diversity to preserve and generate a constructive work setting where variations and similarities of individuals are treasured. The company treasures how workforce diversity adds to its growth. Recruitments is one portion of an integrated and systematic approach to employing development and planning. Recruiting good-quality workers should be approached with the principal objective of supporting the strategic goals of a firm with the ability of its people to attain the set strategic objectives (Ogungi, 2010). Selecting the right individuals is one of the most vital elements of human resource management. The costs linked to poor recruitment and selections are massive. The costs can include increased interpersonal conflicts and tensions, increased staff turnover and lowered productivity which negatively affect a firm’s competitive edge. Modern human resource management centers on gaining a competitive advantage in the business world via human resources. To triumph over the challenges emanating from increased competition, firms undertake radical shifts in the Human Resource procedures and policies with a clear intention of augmenting their employee’s loyalty and efficiency (Ogungi, 2010). However, an organization must be clear about its inspiration in managing diversity. Diversity in workplace is the acknowledgement of different people who share common traits. These traits constitute whole persons and they can unite or divide people. Human resource planning facilitates recruitment and selection of the right people, at the right time and place. The increasing environmental instability, global competition, technological shifts and demographic shifts have made recruitment and selection a complex affair. Recruitment and selection procedures entail defining requirements, attracting applicants, selecting the right applicant and placing the selected applicant on the job (Ogungi, 2010). Firms must promote inclusion of diverse skills and talents to enhance organizational growth. Diversity helps in fostering an effective and creative work setting through a blend of novel ideas, diverse perspectives to problem-solving and work. Workplace diversity entails supporting and valuing discrepancies in the place of work and settling in work practice to form an inclusive environment. A good organization culture supports and respects diverse perspectives, background and skills, and it does to practice harassment and discrimination. A good workplace culture enshrines equal employments, equity, access and social justice principles. Diversity in workplace is shaped through job function, geographic region, marital status, family responsibilities, personality, socio-economic background, life stage and educational level. A workplace that promotes diversity ensures that every individual has the prospect to compete for job prospects without discrimination. Workplace diversity promotes business outcomes besides offering a firm a wide range of insights and ideas to draw on in policy development and decision-making. Firms that value workforce diversity ensures enhanced customer service, enhanced recruitment outcomes, enhanced workplace morale and relations, increased productivity, increased innovation, equitable staff and fair selection. Workplace diversity entails new prospects for both employers and employees. As firms expand, it is essential to make use of talents of workers from diverse backgrounds. This is because differences among people expand them, enrich them and above all, provide a competitive edge for companies (Ogungi, 2010). For instance, Wal-Mart application human resource policies and practices are inclined by its expansion intensity. The company’s recruitment and selection process represents a great intensity of diversification with respect to culture, race and geographical background. Wal-Mart HR departments consider the need to surpass races, gender, and tribes to gain a competitive advantage. Diversity in workplace helps firms in tapping new markets while augmenting their productivity and effectiveness. In this regard, firms should embrace external sourcing method of recruitment as it attracts talents and skills from diverse people. Job positions should be advertised in print media such as newspapers that are accessible to diverse people. With respect to selection, interviewing method is appropriate as it helps in identifying the skills, talents, experience, qualifications and personality of the candidates. Interview helps in evaluating the competency and skills of the applicants. Interviews help employers in establishing the suitability of an applicant to the job position. However, the interviews should be preceded by application form screening, and other relevant tests. Instead of assimilating workers in their own corporate culture, organizations should use the distinctive difference of their diverse labor-force as a strategic advantage. In this perspective, firms should surpass what the law entails and what social justice encourages, entirely integrating every member into their corporate culture and leveraging the strategic benefit provided by diversity capital (Roberson, 2013). Efficient management of diversity enables organizations to be more successful besides achieving competitive advantage over their competitors. To be successful in managing diversity, firms should form an organizational culture that empowers people to be inclusive, respectful and use their skills in expanding the firm’s knowledge base. Conclusion and Recommendations The business world is becoming global thereby increasing the demand for firms to seek for new strategies that help them in overcoming fierce competition and remain successful. Firms need to increase their productivity besides enhancing their ability to expand internationally. While this calls for development and implementation of novel technologies, human capital is paramount. Human resource management serves as a strategic asset to organizations, particularly in gaining competitive advantage and for sustainability purpose. Human resources management refers to the policies, philosophies, practices and procedures linked to management of a firm’s employees. It is concerned with all the actions that contribute to successfully developing, attracting, motivating and retaining a high-performing workforce that ensures organizational success. Human resource management helps in sustainability and creation of competitive advantage. This is because business success and competitive advantage rests on firm’s capacity to determine, nurture and develop core competences. Human resources are a rare, valuable and incomparable resource that is important to any organization. The long-term, sustainable productivity of a firm in the present challenging and changing business environment entails the management’s devotion in designing and executing human resource management programs channeled to developing high performing organizations and employees. Only by anticipating and functioning towards the growth and retention of talented employees can any firm expect to remain success in a global, vibrant and constant changing competitive atmosphere. To attain a competitive advantage and reap the benefits of workplace diversity, firms should develop a recruitment and selection plan that guarantee a diverse pool of applicants. Recruiters should identify the skills, behaviors and traits that are most critical to job performance. They should also develop a procedure to screen for competencies at different stages of a candidate evaluation to ensure that the right candidate is selected for the right job position. Workplace diversity is encouraged through the recruitment and selection procedures where people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse knowledge and skills are hired. Selection should involve choosing the right person in the right position, at the right and through the right procedure. It should not involve just choosing any person to fill a job position if a company wants to gain competitive advantage. During recruitment, recruiters should not seek applicants who are similar to them, but should base their recruitment on skills, experience, professionalism, qualifications and competency. References Armstrong, M. (2006). A handbook of human resource management practice. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Gracia, J. (2004). The influence of human resource management in savings bank performance. Service Industries Journal, 24, 2, pp.51-66. Jackson, S., & Werner, S.(2011). Managing human resources. New York: Cengage Learning. Kumar, R. (2010). Human resource management: Strategic analysis text and cases. New York: I. K. International Pvt Ltd. Nankervis, A., & Morrissey, B. (2009). Effective recruitment and selection practices,5th ed. Australia: CCH Australia Limited, 2009 Ogungi, E. ( 2010). Managing diverse organizational environments for strategic advantage: Exploring the value of developing business diversity curriculum in higher education. Journal of Management Policy, 11, 4, pp. 72-82. Roberson, Q. (2013). The oxford handbook of diversity and work. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More