Article Review

A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES

Dave Ulrich, Harvard Business Review, January/February 1998

Submitted by:
Nirmal Khatri Roll no: 11113 MBA fall 2011

Background The article entitled A New Mandate for Human Resources is extracted from January/ February 1998 issue of Harvard Business Review. In this article, the author Dave Ulrich tries to present new roles for HR which according to him will help the organisation to achieve excellence and competitive advantage. Issues and their importance The main issue that the author is trying to address in the case are as follows. Does human resource management play a significant role in contributing to the organisational performance? How can human resource act as the medium to achieve organisational excellence?

The issues presented by the author are of great importance to the management practitioner from around the world. HR is one of the key functions of the organisation and managers need to think HR beyond staffing and compensation; they should consider HR as value adding component of the organisation that adds value to customers, investors and employees. These issues are also relevant as business environment today is becoming more and more challenging and dynamic due to emergence of competitive challenges such as globalization, technology, change, intellectual property, and continuous strive for profitability through growth. Arguments/ Assumption made by the author In the article, author has suggested ways in which HR could be used to deliver organisational excellence. The four ways are as follows. HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution. HR should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed, delivering administrative efficiency while quality is maintained. HR should become a champion for employees, representing their concerns to senior management and at the same time working to increase employee contribution. HR should become an agent of continuous transformation, shaping processes and a culture that together improve an organization's capacity for change.

In laying out these arguments author has assumed that organisation today consider HR as policy making and regulatory watchdog. According to him, HR seems to be disconnected from real work of the organisation so companies should try to create an entirely new role and agenda that focuses not on traditional HR activities such as paper work, staffing and compensation, but on outcomes. Similarly, author also assumes that HR matter more in this dynamic business environment due to the presence of competitive challenges such as globalization, technology, intellectual property, change and profitability through growth. Methodology The author addresses the issues in the case by setting up mandate that each organisation has to follow in order to develop organisational capabilities such as speed, responsiveness, agility, learning capacity and employee competence in order to help HR deliver organisational excellence. In setting up those guidelines, author has utilised his experience as well as knowledge in the field of human resource management. Similarly, to support his theoretical framework he has mentioned some of the real life scenarios and examples of successful companies. This methodology seems appropriate to deal with the issues relating to HR as many organisations share various common HR functions and roles. So, studying the best practices and developing a general theory based on that study seems to be the best way address the issues related to HR. Conceptual Contribution The article provides significant conceptual contribution in reassuring the need of HR to deliver organisational excellence. It provides a basic guideline stipulating new roles that organisations need to consider in order to develop competitive advantage so as to excel in this complex business environment. The major conceptual contribution is the development of four new roles according to which HR should: Become a partner in strategy execution Become an administrative expert Become an employee champion Become a change agent

The article also suggests need for change in the thinking and behaviour of line managers. the four suggested changes are as follows. Communicate to the organization that the "soft stuff" (like culture change and intellectual capital) matters. Explicitly define the deliverables from HR, and hold HR accountable for results Invest in innovative HR practices Upgrade HR professionals

These all new concept on HR practices provide a significant contribution in the overall literature related to HR. Conclusion The author concludes the articles by indicating that theres a lot of hard work ahead if the organisation wants to reap up full potential of HR in order to achieve organisational excellence. HR professional must focus more on deliverables of their work and less on just getting the work done. Similarly, they must articulate the role in terms of value they create and create a mechanism so that business result quickly follows. Lastly, senior executives need to demand more of the HR function and need to invest in HR as if it were a business.

The conclusion provided is justified in terms of various arguments and facts provided by the author. The author has based the major portion of his theoretical framework on the actual study of actual companies and their practices. Thus, the author at least theoretically, is able to identify the loopholes that were responsible for the stereotyping of HR professional as incompetent value snapping support staff and at the same time is successful to present ways to unleash HRs full potential.

Last but not the least, as the article was published in the 1990s and business environment has changed a lot since then with western countries suffering from recession and businesses cutting costs through downsizing just in order to survive, Scholars and researchers need to integrate and address these all factors while further refining the theory. With western world losing lots of jobs and outsourcing becoming an inevitable problem for them, the main focus of the HR professional and researchers should be on developing a model that addresses the key issues related to job creation with the retention of competitive advantage.