Various Facets of Human Resource Management - Research Paper Example

Various Facets of Human Resource Management First Country Second Country Human resource management has traditionally been viewed as an administrative personnel functions which included employees recruitment, performance appraisal and employee relations. However, in the recent years human resource management has become an integral part of the strategic level of decision making within an organization. The advanced concept of human resource management entails strategic planning which involves recruitment strategy planning, selection, training and development, performance appraisal, management and career development. In this way human resource management is thus becoming a vital management base of an organization where important decisions are made. These human resources management decisions are aimed at maximizing the return on investment from organization’s human capital. Human resource management also entails conducting its various practices e.g. recruitment, promotion and compensations in a fair, legal and consistent manner. In this way therefore, human resource management is more than personnel administrations since it needs planning, resources and management skills Keywords: HRM, Decision-making, employees, management, appraisal, salaries. The modern human resource management analysis perceives human being as valuable assets or resource of an organization. However, the human beings are taken as rational, creative and social beings which differentiate them from other assets. The human resource which is mostly referred as human capital, therefore, proper management to increase their productivity and reduce risk and losses associated with poor management of human capital. (Claydon, Beardwell, et al 2007). At this point therefore, human resource management entails research and development in order to make informed decisions. This make the human resource to be perceived more than labor force which has been taken as an organization resource by economist. Some of the challenged and environmental forces that are considered by human resource managers before making decisions include market labor wages, working conditions, work place diversity and human skills. The human resource managers must also ensure that decisions made comply with labor laws in order to keep a good image of the organization. In order to analyze the human resource management position in the organization management units, it is necessary to analyze the various practices and activities of human resource management. Human resource management involves human resource development which is achieved through job analysis. This is done by identifying level of skills, abilities, competences and flexibility of employees. During recruitment and selection, human resource mangers usually consider various internal and external factors that can affect recruitment process. Such factors include current labor market trends, government labor policies, investment, management style, organization culture and employees education level. (Lanny 1997). In this way the human resource management therefore involves research and job analysis in order to gather necessary information. The information gathered is important in order to make informed decisions and workforce planning. This is thus a management practice that requires competent managerial skills (Lanny 1997). Human resource management also needs to analyze the business environment in which the organization operates. This environmental scanning helps the human resource mangers to make good and accurate decisions based on information available. In this way, the human resource managers consider the demographics trends. They analyze the characteristics of environment workforce e.g. Gender, age, beliefs and social class. This eventually is used when making decisions for instance concerning employees’ pensions, insurance packages etc (Hesketh 2006). The human resource managers also consider the environmental diversity which involves analysis the variations within the population in the society. The mangers thus analyze the changes in the workplace as advocated by social engineering theory to ensure organization development. This analysis helps the organization in advancing diversity of ideas and avoids making decisions which will conflict with anti-discrimination laws and regulations. The human resource manager also considers skills and qualifications in the business environment. This is very important especially important especially these days when there is great technology change. In the recent years most industries have shifted from manual to managerial professions. This thus calls for deep analysis of skills and qualification of the work force. In some situation, the skilled work force is in a tight market trend and thus human resource mangers compete for skilled employees by offering financial rewards, good working conditions and career development. To carryout the business environment study, the human resource management requires professional managerial skills to make accurate and informed decisions (Bencivenga 1995). The human resource management requires some information to analyze individuals’ behavior and labor market trends. To achieve this objective, the human resource managers usually consider the geographical spread. In this context, managers assess the distance between the individual and job which should be align with the payment. The transportation cost usually influence individual decisions to apply for a post. The mangers also considers occupation structure which entails norms and values reduce morale of applicants. (Garratt 1995). For instance, careers which are temporally discourage applicants as they apply for jobs with high level of permanence and security. The human resource managers also consider the generational difference which focuses on age categories of employees. Each age category of employees has specific behavior towards job. This analysis of individual employees behavior help the managers in making a good decision and also advertising a job post that give them most productive employee. It is thus an essential integral of decision making that needs competence and managerial skills (Fleetwood and Hesketh 2008). Human resource is an indispensable resource in an organization that contributes largely to the achievement of the objective of an organization. Human resource management is thus an organization practice that involves complex theoretical and practical management requires professional managerial skills. Based the technological change and quality of work required in different organization, the human resource management practices are designed. This means that the role of human resource management runs from recruitment, selection, evaluation, development and finally to firing unproductive workforce which call for fresh replacement In general, human resource management has undergone great change over the recent years. In the past, most organizations depended on personnel department to manage all employees. However, these days labor market is becoming very competitive and requires managerial professional skills to run and make viral decisions concerning the workforce. This includes staffing training, wages and selection decisions. Poor decisions reduce the productivity level of human resource of an organization. It is therefore, necessary to involve modern managerial techniques and problem solving models to maximize human capital capability. (Fleetwood and Hesketh 2008).These managerial techniques and problem solving models are integrated in every ethic, practice and activity carried out in human resource management. This means that organizational performance largely depends on the performance of human resource management. This is because the human resource is used to reorganize and incorporate other organizational resources to achieve the set goals and objectives (Bundy, 1997). Human resource management aims at getting and maintaining the best employees. To achieve this goal, the human resource managers carry out staffing processes which involve workforce planning, recruiting and job design. Strategic decisions are made in the sense of workforce planning and job design. The human resource mangers analyze the skills ad qualification of the employees in order to select productive employees. They also design and specify jobs and roles based on available employees’ skills. This requires great evaluation of employee’s skills and abilities in order to assign them job that they can do most efficiently and give maximum results. (Fleetwood and Hesketh 2008). Selection of employees and screening of applicant’s is also another managerial decision making task. This is because poor selection or biased screening might lead to organization employing unproductive employees and loosing useful human resource. At this point, decisions made by human resource management usually affect the trend of the organization in the next period of time those employees hired will be working. It is thus a sensitive organ for the organization that contributes largely to the achievement of organizational goals (Garratt 1995). After recruitment of new employees, the human resource management is responsible for maintaining of the employees and motivating them to work. This is done through various organizational ethics. The human resource management uses employee orientation methods to maintain them. Employee orientation involves coming up with programs and forums that familiarize the employees with organizational ethics and culture. This helps the employees in getting use to the organization system faster and being productive. It thus saves the losses incurred by many organizations as new employees familiarize with the organizational culture. (Bencivenga 1995). Such employees’ orientations include probation program, training session and other orientation programs. The human resource management in this context ensures that employees are provided with financial assistance and other rewards to maintain them. If the orientation period is very hostile and harsh to the new employees, most of the selected employees would leave the organization. The human resource management thus must compete with other organization management by establishing motivating orientation programs Employees are essential and valuable asset in every organization. The human resource management thus directs its efforts towards maintaining the employees and improving their skills. This is normally done through career development which improves the skills of employees and prepares them for future jobs. (Kurth 2000). In this way, the human resource management initiates training programs that improve the skills and performance of employees through programs that improve the skills and performance of the employees. The programs initiated must be linked with the current responsibilities and future tasks. To attain this, the human resource management must make critical decisions so that employees are not provided with unnecessary training in relation to the jobs and task assigned to them. (Fleetwood and Hesketh 2008). They also plan and allocate the cost of this career development in order to ensure that the return on employees’ investment is optimally achieved. Optimum career development program usually motivate the employees and this eventually increase their performance. The employees are motivated as the training offered to them prepares them for future jobs and promotion. It gives the employees a sense of belonging and thus converts their individual goals and objectives into organization goals and objective Career development programs if properly established and implemented provides opportunities for employees’ promotion and payment increases. This encourages the employees to work hard as they anticipate for better future (Kurth 2000). The human resource management is also responsible for leadership and management development. In this context a series of important processes and activities are carried out to ensure that leadership and management deliver the services expected. To achieve this, the human resource management initiates monitoring and evaluation programs to ensure that the managerial practices and leadership style used in the organization achieve the expected results. In this context, mid-level mangers are evaluated to determine their effectiveness and necessary corrective actions are taken. (Kurth 2000). The human resource management also initiates programs that give the middle level mangers opportunities to develop and be promoted to senior management. This usually motivates them to work hard and generally increase the organization performance. Some management of various organization, organize for managerial training or courses to its managers to increase their productivity and offer them opportunity for promotion. This management development is costly and sensitive and the human resource management must make critical decision to balance between the cost and return on management investment (Brelade 2000). In the recent years, most organization, have adopted democratic leadership style and vertical integration which motivate the employees and mid-level mangers. The human resource management is thus responsible for setting up a chain of command that motivates the employees. In this way, the human resource management is responsible for creating the organization structure. If an autocratic organization structure is developed, the employees and mid-level mangers are usually unmotivated and less productive. (Fleetwood and Hesketh 2008). Modern leadership style adopted by various management that encourage vertical integration, usually allow employees opinions and interests to be represented in the senior management decisions. Democratic leadership style adopted human resource management ensures that employees can express their opinions and interest to the mid-level mangers who then direct such opinions to senior mangers. The decisions made afterwards by senior managers usually reflect the opinion and interests of the employees this usually encourage and motivate the employees which eventually increase productivity of the employees. (Garratt 1995).It makes the employees individuals’ goals and objectives to align with organization goals. It also gives employees a sense of belonging and increases their morale in their place of work. In this context, the human resource management plays a great role in specifying the roles, responsibilities and powers of each worker in organization, The human resource management is responsible for ensuring that the organization complies with regulations and laws of workplace. Organizations which mistreat and discriminate its employees usually tarnish its image. This usually reduces the performance of the organization at large due to a negative public image. Other organizations associated with employees’ discrimination usually suffer large losses to clear its name and payment of law penalties. The human resource management in context usually ensures that employees’ policies and principles are met in the organization. It also ensure sage work environment. (Kurth 2000). This involves setting budgets for proper working tools and safety facilities for employees. It also deals with drugs in the working place, prevent violence in the work place and general ensuring safety in the work place. This is done through various evaluation programs to determine the working conditions of the employees. The human resource management also ensures fairness in recruitment which polishes the name of the organization and gives it a good public image. This has a positive influence on the performance of the organization. This gives a special role to the human resources management of polishing up the public image of the organization (Brelade 2000). The human resources management also performs other activities and practices to sustain and maintain high performing employees. This is achieved through employee performance management which involves assessing ability and performance of individual employees. Individual employee performance is necessary to be determined so that the right job can be assigned to the right employee through employee performance appraisal. (Soliman and Spooner 2000).To achieve this, the human resource management programs, in this context usually forms working groups and group leaders. Members of each group must have good interpersonal relation and a common goal. The group leader is in charge of overseeing the performance of each individual member employee. The group leaders reports to mid-level manager who then report to senior mangers for decision making. In this way, the senior management can access the performance record s of each individual employee. Necessary corrective actions can then be taken to improve interpersonal relations and assign each member to the best suited group. This improves interpersonal skills and reduces conflicts and violence among the employees. (Kurth 2000). The management can in this way incorporate the opinions and interests of employees in their decisions. This usually encourages vertical integration in the organization, especially when groups are well define and managed. This method of management increase employees’ individual productivity and this motivate and maintain them in the organization. The decision involved in employee performance management, group performance management and the general personnel management is critical and needs a lot of managerial skills and professionals. The human resource management is also used by an organization as a competing tool. In this way it establishes the grading structures for employee payment. Wages and salaries of an organization usually attract employees and are thus used as a basis for organization competition. In conclusion, Human resource management is an indispensable management department which occupies a key poison in the organization. It is involved in making important and critical decisions that determines the performance of organization at large. It generally contributes largely to the achievement of organizational goals. Its practices and activities determine the performance and public image of the organization. It is the management department that deals with most valuable asset in the organization. It is therefore clear that in the recent years, the human resource management has become an integral part of the strategic level of decision making within an organization Bibliography Bencivenga, D. (1995). Learning organizations evolve in new directions, HR Magazine, 40. 10, October, 1995, 69. Brelade, S. (2000). 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"Human resource, facility managers must cooperate." Baltimore Business Journal, Baltimore: March 7, 1997. Bundy, R. (1997). "Changing role of human resources has vast implications." Wichita Business Journal, Wichita: July 11, 1997. Read More