The Role, Skills and Competencies of the UK Line Managers - Research Paper Example

Analyse and Explain the Role, Skills and Competencies of UK Line Managers in their Involvement in Implementing and Adopting their Organisations HRD Strategy This paper aims to analyse and explain the roles, skills as well as competencies of UK line managers in their participation when adopting and implementing the Human Resource Development (HRD) strategies of their organisations. With this concern, the discussion of this report is focused on identifying few of the key challenges that are experienced by the UK line managers in terms of managing, learning as well as training and development practices on their staffs. Contextually, the concept of HRD can be regarded as one of the crucial aspects of any organisation which encompasses various initiatives of empowering and enabling the entire workforce to perform better within a particular organisation. In the current day context, owing to the rapidly increasing competition among global organisations, it has often been argued that the HRD model possesses major role towards empowering employees and developing their capabilities by keeping them motivated and satisfied with regard to their ambitions along with their potentials. It is in this context that the HRD model can also be defined as an effective approach of empowering workforce by nurturing the contributory capabilities possessed by the employees which further leads towards the complete development of their intellectual skills and thereby enables them to contribute large in the growth of organisational productivity (United Nations, 2012). With reference to the case examples from the UK industries, it can be affirmed that frontline managers possess a major influence on the daily activities performed by the ground-level employees within an organisation. Contextually, based on the observation of 50,000 employees across the world, the ‘Corporate Leadership Council’ has revealed that the line managers belong to the segment of professionals who act as the most significant driver of improving employee performances and their engagement in the overall organisational progress. The study has further empirically proved that the efficient performance of the line managers have potential significance to improve employee engagement by 52%, develop employee performance by 25% as well as increase employee retention by 40% (James-Sommer, 2008). Recent studies have often depicted that line managers of an organisation tend to perform the key initiatives towards organisational developments which are further identified to be related with the execution and ratification of Human Resource (HR) principles and practices. From the perspective of UK, it can be observed that a wide variation exists among various organisations in terms of involving line managers in the HRD practices. In most instances, the line managers of modern day organisations are observed to follow the strategies that are designed by the HRD of the organisation, playing a vital role in the implementation of the strategies, rather than getting involved in the development process of those initiatives. Contextually, the major roles that line managers are often observed to perform are associated with the deliverance of appropriate performance appraisals, rendering training and developmental guidance, practicing effective communication and motivating their staff among others (Elliot & Turnbull, n.d.). From a critical perspective, it can be stated that line managers of modern day organisations need to possess five major competencies and skills which can be used to enhance the efficiency of HRD within the organisation (James-Sommer, 2008). Few of the major skills and competencies of line managers have been discussed hereunder. As a matter of fact, leadership skills play a major role for a manager to effectively execute the HRD functions along with other various managerial functions within the organisation. When assessing the leadership competencies of the UK line managers, it has been observed that such skills act as an effective tool for these professionals particularly during the implementation of strategies focused on managing and increasing the performances of their workforce. The common elements of effective leadership skills among UK line managers significantly involve empowering, persuading as well as motivating workers. Moreover, these attributes, as the leadership skills of the UK line managers are also observed to significantly help these professionals in effectively identifying the limitations persisting and the developmental needs in accordance to the performances deciphered by each member within the organisation (Department for Business Innovation & Skills, 2012). The employee engagement skills of the line managers encompass their commitment towards organisational goals and performances of the workers to their respective roles and responsibilities. Through these skills, UK line managers tend to empower their staff towards the enhancement of their capabilities of demonstrating integrity as well as honesty of the workforce by readily adapting changes within the working environment. Moreover, an adequate level of employee engagement skill is required for the line managers in order to clearly articulate organisational goals and likewise empower the workforce to efficiently achieve those determined goals (James-Sommer, 2008). In the similar context, communication skills can be recognised as one of the major tools for the line managers in order to effectively interpret the implemented HRD strategies and inform the workforce regarding their respective roles and activities. It is in this context that the role of the line managers significantly involves assisting their subordinates in satisfying the entitled job responsibilities which further ensures the successful achievement of the overall objectives determined by the organisation. Moreover, an effective communication skill of the line managers which ensures to convey and acknowledge values, skills and contributions of the employees further enables the organisation to accomplish competitive advantage through internal strengths (Department for Business Innovation & Skills, 2012). The skill enables the line managers to effectively deal with various changes occurring within the 21st century working environment. The change management skills among the UK line managers enable them to promote sharing and knowledge culture within the organisation which is further attributed to play a fundamental role in increasing the performances of the workers. Moreover, an effective capability of managing change also tends to ensure that line managers are competent enough to align and assess their as well as their subordinates’ roles, responsibilities as well as performances within the workplace (Lombard & Crafford, 2003). The skills of managing performances by the line managers can be identified as another effective tool to identify the performance level of the workforce related to their assigned jobs and responsibilities and likewise devising an appropriate performance appraisal. Moreover, the process also helps the line managers to recognize the present performances of their staff which not only assists them in devising the future developmental requirements but also facilitates them in relationship building and therefore developing a highly coordinated workforce (Lombard & Crafford, 2003). For instance, with reference to the example of Herbert Retail, it has been observed that the line managers play a vital role in incorporating important functions of the overall organisational operations. The line managers of Herbert thus tend to follow an effective process of managing its workforce applying their adequate competencies and skills concerning change management. Moreover, an apparent leadership as well as communication process are also practiced by the line managers which also ensure the company to efficiently develop their performances of delivering products and services to the global retail organisations (Suff, 2011). Correspondingly, HRD has often been referred as a framework that is executed by an organisation in order to expand the capabilities, values as well as skills and competencies of its human capitals in the long-run scenario. Thus, the HRD functions mainly constitute of training and education facilities which ensure the improvement of both workforce performances and organisational efficiencies as well (Thomas, 2004). However, as argued by various experts, implementing HR strategies are not any easy task. Notably, there are several issues and challenging factors identifiable in today’s business context, which severely hinder the performances of the line managers in terms of practicing HRD strategies (Lombard & Crafford, 2003). The field of HR management constitutes emerging as well as multidisciplinary factors which are practiced by majority of organisations in order to efficiently perform and deal with various challenging circumstances. It is in this context that organisations often tend to execute disciplines in its HRM functions which are designed to attain its unique set of purposes with the help of line managers. In often instances, these principles lack appropriate format or defined set of rules owing to which, it becomes a major issue for the line managers in terms of managing the efficiency and controlling the staff when such planned changes are implemented (Selden & et. al., 2012). Communication as well as adequate cooperation among the line managers with other hierarchical individuals has also been observed as a major issue for UK line managers (O’Rourke, 2009). It is in this context that the support and assistance of the senior level managers can play a vital role in assisting the line managers to efficiently implement the developed HR strategies. It is worth mentioning in this context that as UK line managers are trained only with the procedural issues and possess limited knowledge of the HR challenges and its counter strategies which is further observed to hinder the productivity of the employees (Gilley & Gilley, 2000). Furthermore, the cultural issues often witnessed within the diverse workforce of UK organisations, can also be identified as a major challenging factor for the line managers to implement HRD functions deciphering greater control over the team and other influencing elements. It has often been argued in this regard that the UK organisational culture incorporates different levels of consistent values and beliefs concerning behavioural aspects of the employees towards other members within the organisation. Moreover, the societal and national culture of the employees may possess the most influential effect which can also be a major barrier for the line managers to motivate their staff and adopt changes within the organisational processes effectively. Moreover, the occupational or organisational culture often practises counter-productive goals which may result in conflicts among the employees (Gilley & Gilley, 2000). With this concern, the case study of Brunt Hotels, Plc reveals that the organisation has been facing different challenges due to ineffective practices of HRD initiatives within the organisation. It was further observed in this regard that one of the sole reasons for the line managers to lack in effectively initiating the HR strategies was concerned with the communication gap along with inadequate supports and assistances rendered by the senior supervisors of the organisation (Robson, 2008). Correspondingly, as stated by Thomas (2004), managing diversity within the workforce where employees belong from different cultural and racial variations is quite essential in the present day context to fabricate efficient business strategies that are beneficial to successfully achieve competitive business advantages. The current approaches of HR management significantly represent that the roles and functions of the UK line managers in the respective managerial area have been apparently transforming over the past few years. Contextually, the role of the line managers in HRD has been regarded as critical in terms of creating as well as stimulating the suitable working atmosphere at the ground level of the organisational structure along with facilitating a supportive and learning work culture obtaining the virtues of direct interaction with the employees. References Department for Business Innovation & Skills, 2012. Leadership & Management in the UK - The Key to Sustainable Growth. 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SA Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 42-52. O’Rourke, R. E., 2009. Issues, Trends, and Research in Human Resource Development. Human Resource Development. [Online] Available at: http://wed.siu.edu/faculty/manderson/WED560/Model%20Literature%20Review%20Assignment%20Paper.pdf [Accessed March 01, 2013]. Robson, F. L., 2008. International HRM Case Study. Society for Human Resource Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.shrm.org/Education/hreducation/Documents/08-0753_HRM_Case_Study_SW_v3.pdf [Accessed March 01, 2013]. Selden, S. & et. al., 2012. Experimental Study Comparing a Traditional Approach to Performance Appraisal Training to a Whole-Brain Training Method at C.B. Fleet Laboratories. Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 23, Iss. 1, pp. 9-34. Suff, R., 2011. Improving Line Manager’s Capability. IRS Employment Review. [Online] Available at: https://student.brighton.ac.uk/mod_docs/bbs/miscellaneous/improving%20line%20managers%20capability.pdf [Accessed March 01, 2013]. Thomas, D. A., 2004. Diversity as Strategy. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. [Online] available at: http://www.tedchilds.com/files/HBRDiversityStrategy04.pdf [Accessed March 01, 2012]. United Nations, 2012. United Nations Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination Human Resources Development. Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/oesc/humanresources.shtml [Accessed March 01, 2013]. Read More