The Role of Human Resource Department in the Development of a Firms Sectors - Essay Example

Introduction Human resource management (HRM) has being of great concern all over the world in implementing organizational changes and there are many challenges faced by HR departments to ensure new ideas are implemented in the most effective way. Many studies have shown that human resource department is instrumental in development of firm’s financial and administrative sectors.Human resource should be carefully constituted as it’s concerned with general organization in terms of policies, employees, goal and objectives to which his organization is geared towards improving its effectiveness and better performance (Boselie, 2005).Leadership can be defined as the way process are influenced in an organization by leaders who have visions and is determined to achieve the organizations set objectives at any cost.Management makes programmed decision affecting organization day to day activities and is concerned with administrative duties rather than decision making. For HR to be leading the department should employ effective strategy and solution to resourcing and ensuring there is talent planning and development, service delivery is at its best with well-coordinated systems of communication which involves employee engagement and relations. Thus leading HR should be determined in performance and must reward employees on good work done. Above all the human resource management should be of credible personality, driven to deliver, decisive thinkers, role model and should have courage to challenge actions in the organization. Organization is important to ensure delivery of services and attainment of objectives if structural changes are effectively managed (Woodrow, 2012). Organizational structure of any firms matters a lot as if it’s well organized it will be easy to effect changes because the values , believes and attitudes set by an organization so there is well spelt out procedure on how everything is coordinated in the organization including , communication systems and responds to the environment. Strategic human resource management relies mostly on resource based view of the firm which suggests human resource practices leads to high performance and sustained in competitive environment. Top management should ensure high technology is employed in firms to enable HR practices build up mentoring, give incentives to performing workers and also enable performance appraisal which encourages development of working relationship (Collins&Clark, 2003). HRM and worker performance Human resource development can be achieved be ensuring you hire only qualified individuals with potential of learning and adapting to changes and training them to increase their performance and increasing knowledge assets in the organization. Human resource management creates value and increases firm’s performance and also increases interactions between employees and customers which in turn shapes customers perspective of the quality of service they obtain from the firm. If the employee put time and effort in satisfying customers’ needs this increases customers buying behavior and trust in the firms products hence the firm is able to maintain existing customers and all gain new ones as customer experience ultimately attracts new clients. Commitment of human resource department, impact the willingness of employee to satisfy customer’s needs and the general performance of the firm (McClean, 2009). HR departments have being viewed as the greatest assets in any organization and are actively involved in selection , training and ensuring changes are implemented to increase the performance of the firm is competitive in the current environment which translates to good results both financially and product wise . HR department must comply with the organizations objectives in order to ensure that any changes they impose are compatible with the client’s needs. Before any change is proposed should be wide consultation among top management to ensure it’s efficient. Training to the workers on how the changes can be perfected should be done as cultural change requires some monitoring (Pyshorn & Huisman 2011). Performance of HRM is of concern with managerial changes within the firm to grow and develop structures that will ensure there is program design and implementation. HR managers have task of maximizing on their knowledge of workforce and best way to deal with managing people to become change agents to lead and believe in the structural implementation of changes within the organization. HR professionals function is managing changes including supporting and advising employees by preparing document entailing the changes to be used in developing procedure of implementing changes in the organization. This becomes possible by ensuring they recruit employees who are willing to implement the changes and competitiveness in the working environment (Alfes, Truss & Gill, 2010). Most human resource management journals have shown the interaction between human resource professionals and other employee determines progress, working relations and unity in the organization and should be strong link between them for any firm to achieve its sustained comparative advantage and record strategic performance. Consensus should be applied in implementation of changes in the firm because in its absence there will be no good will to ensure the changes are effected and hence performance will be affected as workers will not create good environment for organizations growth and development hence customers will be dissatisfied and affect service delivery (Keegan &Boselie 2006).Performance is of great importance to employees as they are assured of job security, selective hiring and extensive training and learning opportunities, their issues are addressed accordingly. Team work is encouraged and self-management of the time allocated to them to work which in turn leads to career development and differences between leaders and employees are reduced hence they enjoy the working environment. Employees above all are able to balance their work and social time. Development of organization is achieved by ensuring we have competitive human resource team that manages employees individually and cumulatively the organizational team to address uncertainty and engages in training the employee on structural changes to reduce threats of suppressing those hence poor working relations. Specialization of workers enables them work in their area of expertise hence ensuring smooth transition of changes as there is awell spell out guidelines on what is expected of them to implement and the interaction helps to have consistent and harmony in the operations which works well for the good of the whole organization (Lengnick-hall, et al 2011). HRM studies have shown that human resource professional relationship with employees is determined by management structure of the organization thus ranking employee’s helps in ensuring integration of individual and firms objectives are taken care of hence competitive employees relationship will ensure changes are effected according as promotions are based on performance (Janssens & Steyaert, 2009). HR outsourcing Outsourcing is good in an organization when we have low transaction cost caused by external factors and human resource decision are the main causes of demand for reduced costs. HR professional should work on reducing cost of production and allocating employees to the core areas in the production thus services will be delivered at best hence attracting more and effectively products which are of high quality and satisfies customers . All relevant strategic activities should be allocated more time and resources this increases relationship between HRM andan employee as job security is a priority to them (Delmotte & Sels 2008).Roles of management can be stated as follows, creating of agenda i.e. establishing detailed step wise guideline on how the firm can achieve stipulated goals with the available resources, organizing and staffing the firm to have the required man power to drive its mission. Organizational structures should be flexible and easily adaptable and should create room for adjustments as some attributes’ are unexpected. Management and employees should be able to interrelate in a manner that will enable them achieve the firms objective. (Lengnick-hall et al 2011). Leadership HR policies and practices have faced a challenge in that they formulate policies then give administrators to ensure its implemented by the employees but the administrators may not be willing to enact the policies hence the organization may fail to meet its intended objective and blame comes back to the human resource department which have no information if the policies where not implemented to the latter. There should be well spelt boundary on the roles undertaken by human resource managers and administrative managers so that each as power to monitor implementation of policies and practices and reduce personal motives in delivery and enactment of changes in the organization(Woodrow, 2012).Leadership’s role in an organization is establishing direction by developing vision for the future of the organization and the means of driving changes necessary in ensuring you are on the right track to achieving the vision. Leadership has acts as means of communication to employees and feeding them with available strategies for smooth running of the firm to attain its vision. Critical human resource management system should be concerned with contextualizing HR practices within the existing environment to maximize on profits and ensure there is increased market share and should be good at enacting employment laws as required, it should also be good of adopting human management’s skills that are useful in interacting with the workers. The views of the employees are best addressed by human resource department in management and this improves unity in the firm as problems have good channels to be dealt (Delbridge &Keenoy, 2010). Leadership should be aimed at motivating team spirit in an organization and hence should engage dialog in his leadership style and by so doing trust builds up in the organization. A good leader should advocate and fight for the rights of his juniors and this ensures they support you in achieving overall aim of the organization and have long and easy life in the leadership position of the firms (Mintzberg, n.d). Leadership and followers should coexist for the good of an organization growth and expansion. Leaders control power while followers are the providers of resources and skills that lead to the powers in leaders. Good relations between them ensure their greater productivity and dedication to the provision of the services to the organization. Leader follower exchange theory is applicable in determining how they will interact. Leaders should empower follower to feel their contribution is appreciated (Collinson, 2005). Change is unpredictable and occurs gradually. In an organization change is important in that it determines the competitiveness of organization and productivity expected in the firm. The speed at which change is enacted is crucial in that it shows growth in the organization. Internal and external factors are also crucial in effecting change in any sector of the organization Information processes i.e. transfer of information from one sector to another is crucial in ensuring perfect transfer of structural change between the policy makers and implementers. Agreement on pace a change to be adopted should be done and requires highly skilled professional to formulate procedure on phases of adoption of the change (By, 2005). Human resource management process should be able to support customers by ensuring they are satisfied and receive services in timely and efficient manner as they are the ones that ensure business objective of maximizing profit are met. Proper planning is essential to measure progress and should be continuous, policies should be implemented procedurally and monitoring and evaluation should be done regularly. Workers should also be motivated to ensure they are satisfied to implement changes required (Cakar, Bititci &MacBryde, 2003). Hard model approach stresses the link employees to management or leadership and relations in their duties. HR like any other resource, land and capital used by management as it sees fit. Labour is a commodity like others although if conditions are conducive it can be treated well, for example when it is in short supply or central to the achievement of organizations objectives Managing the resourceful humans, employees are valued assets, and source of competitive advantage through their skills and abilities. By gaining commitment and loyalty of staff, managers can ensure that they deliver their best performance. . There can be many different styles for the management of people in the hard model whereas within the soft there is one style superior to all the others. So the soft conceives of HRM as a particular style of managing (By, 2005). HR members have several duties which vary from staffing through ensuring we have qualified employees who have the skills, indentify the gaps within the organization and retention of the existing ones to ensure we give incentives and promoting them. Knowledge should be introduced by ensuring they are trained, acquire new technology to improve productivity. Policies should be compatible with the organizations objectives visions and mission. Changes in the management structure should have a well spelt out procedure step wise on how it will be effected (Ali, 2009). HR constraints Human resources management has being faced by challenges in policies and practices. Isolation are experienced where HR departments in small organizations have no powers in determining the working force as administrative heads are responsible for hiring and enacting changes in their departments. This creates conflicts of interest between HR departments and line managers where each has his personal motives (Thompson, 2011).Improvements such as absenteeism, Labor turnover, increased productivity, better customer relationships. Struggles between managers and human resource management haveled to poor altitude in implementation of the policies as each is determined in ensuring his/her interest is incorporated in the changes to be done and flexibility in the market. Traditional cultures in the mentality of employees has become a problem to the HRM asit’s not easy to implement what you have no believe in (Keegan &Boselie, 2006).Some of the constraints faced by HR department in enacting changes in an organization include: lack of trust from leadership and management, some cultures have believe that change is not necessary and not feasible as well. Threats to values fear of personal failures. Personal values in the leadership styles of organization have been seen as the main challenge to growth of an organization. Normal problems have lead to failure in the HR departments and this attributed to wrong choice of staff and affects the overall performance going down (Ali, 2009). Normative other factors, that may influence in terms of organisational strategies and contingent variables. Typically, a model is defined as an imitation or an abstraction from reality that is intended to order and simplify our view of that reality while still capturing its essential characteristics. It is hence a logical structure. Models are present as analytical tools. They are artificial entities or constructs to that extent and are there to further enhance our understanding of a particular topic. Provide an analytical framework for studying HRM. Legitimate certain HRM practices. Establish variables and relationships to be researched (By, 2005). According to (Alfes et al 2010) public sector HR department are faced with problems not being involved in the process of structural and institutional changes as their exists change drivers who are responsible for the change processes.Information and communications technology is important concept in analysing how firms shift from Labour intensive to technology intensive in order to maximise on production.Labour markets are constantly in a state of full – employment patterns trends can be observed typical contracts are on the rise, increased participation of women, rising unemployment which Move away from primary agriculture and manufacturing to third sector characterised by informal, union free, smaller employment units, traditional public sector much diminished and blurring of the public-private boundaries. Strikes, unionisation are a thing of the past. Flexibility defined in several ways as we will see in another lecture is definitely on the Public sector. Conclusion Leadership and management must work together for the overall good of the organization. Management must ensure proper budgeting and planning while leadership must ensure good relationship between policy makers and those who are implementing the policies.HRM has to ensure change either long term or short term has well formulated structure that involves both the leadership and management. It is in line with vision and mission of the firm and compressive effort has being used by taking into account views of all concerned in the formulation. Research should be done to see how viable the change will be in solving current and future problems. Some of the constraints faced by HR department in enacting changes in an organization include: lack of trust from leadership and management, some cultures have believe that change is not necessary and not feasible as well. Threats to values fear of personal failures.All these factors have influenced failure to adopt change in organization as change has proved to be complex and interrelated. Good communication and leaders are the main determiners of any organizations growth. Learning of new skills and researching on the best way to ensure there is different leadership generally influence how workers and management interact and pass out their issues (Ali, 2009). HR members have several duties which vary from staffing through ensuring we have qualified employees who have the skills, indentify the gaps within the organization and retention of the existing ones to ensure we give incentives and promoting them. Knowledge should be introduced by ensuring they are trained, acquire new technology to improve productivity. Policies should be compatible with the organizations objectives visions and mission. Changes in the management structure should have a well spelt out procedure step wise on how it will be affected .Private sector has been viewed to perform better than public sector due to transparent and accountability in recruitment and selection of employees as professionalism is considered strictly, high salaries , incentives , motivations and are competition to meet international standards. Corruption in selection in public sector has reduced performance and lead to customer dissatisfaction (Ali, 2009). Many studies have shown that human resource department is instrumental in development of firm’s financial and administrative sectors. Human resource should be carefully constituted as it’s concerned with general organization in terms of policies, employees, goal and objectives to which his organization is geared towards improving its effectiveness and better performance (Boselie, 2005). Hence the human resource department should always incorporate view of all employees in the formulation of policies so as to ensure there is no sector in the firm that is not represented in the general growth of the firm. References Alfes, K, Truss, C & Gill, J 2010, The HR Manager as Change Agent: Evidence from the public sector, Journal of Change Management Vol. 10, No. 1, 109–127, March 2010 Ali ,A 2009, The Role of Leadership in Human Resource Management a Comparative Study of Specific Public and Private Sectors in Pakistan Journal of Management and Social Sciences Vol. 5, No. 2, (Fall 2009) 180-194 Boselie, P, Dietz ,G & Boon, C 2005, Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 15, no 3,2005, pages 67-94. By, RT 2005, Organizational change management: A critical review, Journal of Change. Cakar, F, Bititci, US & MacBryde, J 2003, A business process approach to human resource management business process management journal vol.9 no.2, 2003 pp. 190-207, and emerald publishers. Collins, CJ & Clark, KD, 2003, Strategic Human resource practices, top management team social networks and firms’ performance: The role of human resource practices inn creating organizational competitive advantage. Academy of Management Journal 2003, Vol. 46, No. 6, 740-751, academy of management , http://www.jstor.org/stable/30040665 Collinson, D 2005, Dialectics of leadership, sage publications, London, New Delhi. Delmotte, J &Sels L 2008,HR outsourcing: threat or opportunity, Personnel Review, Vol. 37 no.5 pp. 543 – 563 Delbridge, R & Keenoy, T 2010. Beyond managerialism? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 21, No. 6, May 2010, 799–817 Janssens, M &Steyeart, C 2009,HRM and Performance: A Plea for Reflexivity in HRM Studies Journal of Management Studies 46:1 January 2009. 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Woodrow, C & Guest, DE 2012, Exploring the Boundaries of Human Resource Managers’ Responsibilities. Read More