Strategic Approaches of HRM - Essay Example

Reflective Paper on Human Resource Management Outline Paragraph Introduction Paragraph 2: Human Resource Management (HRM) Paragraph 3: Strategic Approaches of HRM Paragraph 4: Personal Experience of the Elements of HRM Paragraph 5: Recruitment and Selection, EEO and Affirmative Action Paragraph 6: Reward System: Compensation and Benefits Paragraph 7: Safety and Health Paragraph 8: Employee and Labor Relations Paragraph 9: Importance of Elements of HRM Paragraph 10: Conclusion Personally, my knowledge on the area of human resource management helps me a lot in my career as a nurse. Having an understanding in this field of study makes me feel I have confidence in my chosen profession and of course, it prepares me to take on greater responsibilities as a nurse. Its role in my life as an employee has shaped me to work at my very best. Thus, it assists every organization to work at its optimum. Basically, human resource management (HRM) functions an undeniably significant role in every organization. First and foremost, without this unit, for sure, every company will not work on its optimum for the reason that HRM operates to an aim of improving the effectiveness of the company through its main resource, its people (Gospel, 2009). In order to meet the company’s goals and objectives, the human resource management takes into account a lot of domains. Above all, it should strategically plan on how all these will be met. In this strategic planning, first, the human resource needs must be taken into consideration. There are different views on the strategic aspects of human resource management. Various existing literatures have their own perspective of HRM. Likewise, many definitions of strategic human resource management exist. In 2001, Kazmi and Ahmad discussed the different approaches to strategic human resource management. According to them, definitions of strategic HRM vary depending on the particular approach. The strategic approaches to HRM are strategy-focused, decision-focused, content-focused and implementation focused. Specifically, the strategy-focused approach as considered by Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills and Walton (1984) claims that human resource management is strategic by its very nature. This approach greatly believes that all elements that make HRM are connected strategically. For Devanna, Fombrun and Tichy (1981), the decision-focused approach, on the one hand, are based on three decision –making levels such as operational, managerial and strategic. While for the content-focused approach, Torrington and Hall (1995) stated that the strategic human resource management occurs only when there is a match between the elements of HRM and the strategy of the organization. Lastly, implementation-focused approach of strategic human resource management is when each system of HRM facilitates in the designing business strategies and of course, its implementation (Miles and Snow, 1984). However, my real learning of HRM has emerged through my personal experience as a nurse employee. The actual field in the healthcare makes me realize, more than its terminologies and definitions, what areas of HRM such as equal employment opportunity (EEO), affirmative action, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, human resource development, compensation and benefits, safety and health, and employee and labor relations are all about. According to Lievans and Chapman (2009), though recruitment and selection are regarded as the key strategic areas in HRM, they are seen to be very old for they have been around for such a long time. Indeed, I have my very own particular experience in the processes of recruitment and selection. There always comes this fear of not being hired because there are a lot more others who want to be chosen in the field as well. There are times when people feel that a company is so unfair because of its biased opportunity given to people. In this regard, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action play a role in every organization. To ensure that there will be no discrimination to take place, both regard that the factors of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin should not be reasons of who to employ. Everyone must have equal opportunity to be employed. Of course, what we could not deny is that the selection process considers who can really suit best the position. By that means, he or she must be really an effective person in that particular position. In any field, like in my case, my profession as a nurse, employees must be competitive enough and work at their very best. As a nurse, I am dealing with lives of people. I play a very important role on their safety and health. If to a certain degree, I have not work on my optimum and lack the dedication to my profession, sure, the healthcare organization where I belong will surely be disrupted. That is the significance of HRM in our lives. It enhances our quality as an employee. It ensures that we should be working at our very best for we have to help the company be at its very best as well. To ensure everyone’s effectiveness in the organization, employees are rewarded through compensation and benefits. According to Lawler (1984), strategic planning of human resource management also comes along with planning and designing the reward systems. This is for the reason that rewards systems attract the right kind of people to work in an organization. It also builds a supportive environment and structure. And most especially, reward systems serve as motivations to employee to perform their very best in any particular job. Who could not relate in this area? For the most part, the reward system is always on the top among the lists of the consideration set in any job. Personally, after all the hard work in any field of profession, of course, we would want to be satisfied by those rewards. We would want to be compensated with the right amount of salary and company benefits that would surely make us feel secured. Moreover, my personal experience has also illuminated what the importance of safety and health in an organization are. Well, it is not just because I am currently working as a nurse but indeed, it also plays a huge factor why safety and health in every company are significant areas of human resource management. For the human resources to perform at its very best, their respective companies must also ensure that the health and safety of the employees matter to the company. We are entitled of having leaves and medical benefits to safeguard every life of an employee. Indeed, feeling unwell does not make us effective workers, may even cause to worsen the condition of the patients in the hospital, and thus, does not contribute to the effectiveness of the company. On the one hand, the employee and labor relations also assist the increase of the effectiveness of an organization. Based on my experience, it is really difficult to be an in an environment where you have to interact with people whom you do not feel working with. Instead of interacting with them, we just choose not to. Instead of working with them, we just choose not to. In times when we really have to work with them, we lose our focus and just hasten the time spent working with them. Thus, in this case, the quality of work is not undermined. It not only disrupts the relationship between and among employees but as well as the labor relations. In reality, this is how the elements of HRM are connected. These all work together in order for the human resource management system to perform its primary function of meeting the organizational goals and objectives. For my opinion, all these aspects have equal importance to the company in order to attain its aim through its main resource, the people. Indeed, though each element has its very own specific function, its total combined effects operate to the stability of the human resource. The lack or absence of any of the following may lead to a dysfunctional human resource. With the deficiency in any of these aspects, for sure, I would surely ponder if I am really in an organization which I deserve. For the employee to operate at its optimum and to stay long enough in an organization, the company itself must take care of its people through meeting the requirements of the following elements. For my part, I greatly consider that the human resource management has a huge role of improving effectiveness and contribution of employees to achieve the organization’s aim. Even though HRM is predominantly visible in the recruitment and selection processes, this management system forever ensures the quality of human resource. All the knowledge gained from the area of human resource is relevant in my profession. This is for the reason that I have learned the importance of each element which would not only prepare me for greater roles being a nurse and a healthcare administrator in the future, but also with the management of my personal life. In order to take greater roles of managing a hospital or even a home, one has to learn first to be the primary unit of a system. In this case, one has to learn how it feels to be an employee first before one can manage them. It could not be the case that you should just design plans and implement them, but what matters most is to feel what it would be like to be employee in order to realize what the needs of the employees are and give it to them without undermining the organizational goal but ensuring the effectiveness of each company. For me, this has been the impact of the insights on human resource management to my career as a nurse and hopefully, a healthcare administrator. References: Devanna, M.A., Fombrun, C. & Tichy, N. (1981). Human resource management: a strategic perspective. Organizational Dynamics 9(3): 151-68. Gospel, Howard (2009). Human Resource Management. In A. Wilkinson, N. Bacon, T. Redman & S. Snell The SAGE handbook of human resource management. SAGE Publications Ltd. Kazmi, A. & Ahmad, F. (2001). Differing approaches to strategic human resource management. Journal of Management Research 1(3): 229-252. Lawler III, E.E. (1984). The strategic design of rewards system. In C.J. Fomburn, N.M. Tichy, & M.A. Devanna, (Eds.) Strategic human resource management, I127-147. New York: Jon Wiley and Sons. Miles, R.E. & Snow, C.C. (1984). Designing strategic human resource management systems. Organizational Dynamics 28(3): 62-74. Torrington, D. & Hall,, L. (1995). Personnel management: human resource management in action. London: Prentice-Hall. Read More