The Key Roles for Human Resource Manager - Coursework Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : The key roles for Human Resource Manager Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Introduction Organizations require the use of complex range of resources in order to survive, grow as well as achieve the vital missions or the objectives that make their existence. Therefore, mobilization and the deployment of such resources as; human, material and financial within the proper resource-mix, provides most organizations with leverage for operating to the desired end. The most compelling and central of such resources is the human resource which contributes significantly to the bottom line and competitiveness of the organizations. As a result, organizations gain the continued competitive advantage via people and their workforce (Walker, 2004). Management of human resources within the organization is considered as the traditional responsibility expected from the personnel manager. People-management discipline is globally undergoing through a continuous metamorphosis, especially with the current understanding of the strategic human resource management within the organization as well as the management literature. The roles of human resource manager Strategic partner The contemporary human resource manager has to perform the four complementary roles. For instance, as a strategic partner, the human resource managers need to think outside their traditional box of the organizational human resource management, carefully develop a very systematic as well as radically distinctive approach to his or her human element management(Patrickson & O’Brien, 2001). This results into effective human resource support to the formulation and the implementation of the business strategy within the organization. In addition, the successful implementation for the role of business partner requires the understanding ability of the human resource on the business direction and competitive position of the organization within the prevailing market places. Human resource managers also need to have competencies relevant to the detailed business issues contained in the strategic development, be able to effectively contribute to the organizational design with change management. Therefore, to be a strategic partner it calls for continuous evaluation for the aligned current human resource practices and the targeted business objectives of the organization and the continued efforts in designing the policies, practices that expands such an alignment (Barney & Wright, 1998). The definition of the organizational architecture which involves the identification of business operations in terms of strategy, rewards, people, shared values, structure, style and processes have to be adopted and should be held responsibly by the human resource practitioner. Administrative excellence is also an important role played by the human resource since it provides very useful contributions to the entire organizational performance. As an administration expert, the manager should rethink on how various works are conducted in the entire organization. Employee Advocate Employee advocate is another role for a human resource manager that makes him or her to be an employee’s advocate. This implies that the human resource manager is the voice to the employees’ management discussions, provide the employees with personal as well as professional growth opportunities and enhance the required resources by the employees in meeting their respective demands expected from them (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). The change agent role requires the human resource manager to involve in the implementation as well as management of the organizational change. He as an agent for change should be able to assess the potential, sources operating as obstacles to change and work in collaboration with the line managers to effectively overcome such barriers. Therefore, the human resource role of change agent entails the replacement of resistance with resolution, fear of a given change with excitement concerning it possibilities and planning with the required results. Under the role of employee advocate, human resource managers offers the employees with the development opportunities, strategies for profit-sharing and some other employee benefits with regular schedules for the communication of the available opportunities. Change champion Change champion involves the a continuous evaluation of how effective the organizational performance results are, this is done in line with the human resource managers’ needs to aid in the regular supporting any change. Studies indicate that being knowledgeable and able to effectively change organizational strategies, renders the competency of human resource to be exceptionally valued (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). . In addition, the capability of the human resource managers to make the necessary linkages between the required changes and the prevailing strategic needs of the organization, results into the reduction of employee unrest as well as control of the unnecessary resistance to the effective changes for competitive edge. The key internal, external and global environmental challenges influential to the Strategic HRM in future decade In the coming decade, the strategic human resource management is expected to face challenges and the opportunities. For instance, collaboration as well as the integration of the organizational Total Quality for strategic management purposes will be an important and demanding aspect in management (Keleman, 2003). Studies indicate that the human resource management aspect will remain as the most crucial and reactive function for the specific responding to various problems whenever they occur. For the next years, there will be challenging times in the human resource functions (Keleman, 2003). This is because the human resource departments will have choices to make between the need to continue as functional specialists or to reorient and make the necessary self-redirection to control and meet the needs of human resources, business process and the line managers. Workplaces flexibility will be high as the virtual offices will be characterized by the creative, flexibility of work arrangements. Therefore, much of the emphasis will be on the employees’ performance than on the number of hours worked due to the off-site emerging nature of various works. As a result, the off-site employees will have to attend very few meetings as their specified work will be collaborative requiring the cross-functional management of the human resource managers. The human resource managers will be expected to accommodate employees within their various work locations with careful consideration how to manage the organizational culture, employee orientation and socialization. Global business and Human resource The human resource need to be informed about other cultures, business practices and languages since their responsibilities will involve the development and management of the international workforces, maintenance of the policies for culture management and keeping the top managers updated with current information across the world. Globalization will have a challenging impact on the human resource managers since it will require them to possess the new the new skills for instance, language capabilities. They will need to be familiarized with various cultural norms to effectively promote their required organizational diversity. As human resource professionals, they will be expected to provide some cultural sensitivity trainings to the entire organizational employees and managers (Patrickson & O’Brien, 2001). One of the major and constant challenges that managers will be faced with is the need to align the human resource to the businesses of the organization. This calls for careful attention to the human resource since it is viewed as the business partner. Change management and competitive advantage Human resource managers that do not consider the significance of learning as well as adapting to global environmental changes will usually involve more in reacting than innovating. As a result, organizations led by such managers will end up failing due to lack of competitive competence. Therefore, a great challenge which remains and need the constant attention of the human resource managers is the use of available resources very effectively and efficiency improvements for sustainable competitive edge. According to Walker (2004) considers the concept of competitive advantage as the strategic thinking objective and the basic focus for any entrepreneurial action. He suggests that the vision for management and the future of the organization need to motivate the entire managers in keeping their respective competitive advantage. Human Resource and foreign language competence The future organizations will be required to be global as far as culture as well as focus is concerned strategically to influence the business culture of their organizations. Culture, traditions and habits are the significant factors that need to be considered for any future changes. The human resource management requires their employees’ support and participation that are entirely affected and congruent with the prevailing culture for stability achievement (Patrickson & O’Brien, 2001). It is very clear that the management of diverse workforce is one of the major challenges for the contemporary and future managers. Since managers will be involved in the employment of people from diverse cultures, such managers will be faced with the challenge foreign language speaking ability. It will be very important for the human resource managers to understand the foreign languages so as to enhance business communication and their people-management duty. Human Resource and leadership The human resource management plays a significant role of organizational leadership. According to Jones and George (2003), posed a challenge to the human resource managers that examined leadership as being the process through which an individual exercises influence over the others and inspires, directs and motivates the activities to for the successful achievement of organizational goals. Kotter (1996) argued that leadership is the major key for establishing and achieving sustainable organizations of the twenty-first century. In addition, Kotter foresees that future employees will have improved leadership as well as management competencies compared to the prior decade counterparts. The roles of Human Resource managers and the Human Resource management activities for the next decade The roles of human resources in various organizations have expanded outside the administrative and the operational roles that involve strategic responsibilities. Such changes will require the human resource practitioners to continuously involve in the new and various responsibilities such as redesigning jobs, managing changes, designing, restructuring the organizations and the establishment of systems to manage the performance of the organizations. This is simply because the human resource management is currently undergoing the enormous transformations that will result into career changes. Since majority of the employers are greatly emphasizing on the business intelligence idea of automating as well as the outsourcing of the administrative functions, several of the human resource experts will be forced to demonstrate some new skills to effectively compete for the unfamiliar and future roles (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). Job analysis Job analysis involves determining a variety of employment positions with the support of other organizations. The human resource managers will be required to possess the necessary skills as well as the experiences for satisfactory performance in that particular position, anticipate the future employment trends, involve in job identification and skill requirements for strategic management of the organizations (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). Identification of the key responsibility areas; taking note of the existing working conditions with regard to the physical, financial and the social features of the stated job will be considered. The task of job analysis will be very important since it is the cornerstone aspect of human resource management. The job re-designing will involve the careful shift from the traditional human resource function to the human resource management. As a result, careful consideration will be taken on the rapidly occurring and constant changes to make the necessary improvements within the workforces’ productivity. sustainable competitive advantage achievement. resource managers will be required to use the information obtained from the job analysis for hiring and promoting future employees, determine the wages and training needs and for other human resource management decision making in the organization (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). The Human resource managers will have to maintain a reliable job analysis of an interview process that is significant to the existing changes within the job market. The management leaders in the human resource department will be intended to take care of the detailed results obtained from the job analysis activities. Human resource planning Since human resource is continuously becoming a very significant aspect in organizational executive planning, therefore, it is being considered as the most integral part in management. Through the human resource role of planning, the various organizational approaches to staffing are determined with the support of job analysis information or results (Walker, 1999). Human resource managers will be under the obligation to establish highly performing organizations through the performance planning and management, involve in the task of improving the organization and its employees’ competencies, creation of flexible work among the teams, and the satisfaction of customers’ needs as the strategic planning especially for the senior management. Selection and recruitment Since the initial responsibility of the human resource management is to attract very quality workforce through a process that is commonly known as recruitment and the employee selection to get the best people for the required positions (Walker, 1999). Human resource managers will have to be competent enough in the area of employee attraction and selection to ensure that organizations achieve capable personnel with the desired competencies for competitive advantage. The employee recruitment and selection based on the job analysis will be easily achieved compared to the previous human resource management staffing that relied largely depended on the prevailing employee recommendations. Therefore, human resource managers will be required to carry out the recruitment and selection process in an accurate manner since it is a crucial process that influences the entire organizational processes and its future performance. They should consider the process as a significant part for successful achievement of sustainable competitive advantage (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). Conclusion The ability for the human resource manager calls for the continuous assessment of the aligned existing human resource activities and with the intended business objectives of an organization. In addition, continued efforts are required in designing policies and practices for organizational management and expansion. Management of diverse workforce is among the major challenges faced by the current as well as future human resource managers. Careful job analysis recognizes the recruitment as well as selection as being an interdependent, continuous and inevitable process that deserves adequate and instant follow-up interventions. Bibliography Barney, J. B. & Wright, P. M., 1998, “On becoming a strategic partner: The role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage”. Human Resource Management, 37(1), 31-46 Jones, G. and George, J., 2003, Contemporary Management. 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill, Boston. Keleman, M., 2003, Managing Quality, SAGE Publications, London: Kotter, J., 1996, Leading Change, Harvard Business School Press, Boston. Lengnick-Hall, M. and Moritz, S., 2003, The impact of e-HR on the human resource management function. Journal of Labor Research, summer 2003, Vol 24, (3): 1-3. Patrickson, M., &O’Brien, P., 2001, Managing diversity: An Asian and Pacific focus, John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. Australia. Walker, J. ,1999, Are You Up To Speed? Human Resource Planning, Vol. 22, (3): 147. Walker, G., 2004, Modern competitive strategy, McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., New York. Read More