Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ASSIGNMENT
A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ARTICLE SUMMARY & CRITICAL REVIEW
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: PROF. KAMAL K JAIN
SUBMITTED BY:
GROUP 11 (SECTION D)
ANUJ ANAND (2010PGP057)
BUNNY SETHI (2010PGP089)
DIVYA PRIYANAKA SINHA (2010PGP106)
KUMAR VAIBHAV (2010PGP440)
NITIN NEGI (2010PGP231)
SACHIN VARSHNEY (2010PGP319)
SANJEEV DAUKIA (2010PGP332)
HRM A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES GROUP 11 (SECTION D)
A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES: ARTICLE SUMMARY
The article talks about the age‐old beleaguered reputation of HR and the need to define its new role.
The author further states the importance of and the integral part played by Human Resources (HR)
in today’s organisation. He explains that the excellence of an organisation depends on its ability to
get things done and to treat its people well. This is where HR comes into picture and eventually
helps an organisation to overcome competition and achieve success. Thus the HR is defined by what
it delivers and not by what it does.
HR can deliver organisational excellence in the following ways‐
1. HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution.
2. HR should become an expert in the way the work is organised and executed, delivering
administrative efficiency to
3. HR should become champion of employees so as to increase employees’ commitments and
their ability to deliver results.
4. HR should become agent of continuous transformation shaping process and culture for
improving organisations capacity to change.
Thus this new agenda defines HR’s activities as those that would help the company better serve its
customers as well as increase shareholder value.
The new agenda for HR is totally in contradiction to its current status. In today’s world HR mostly
performs activities that are disconnected from the real world. HR’s role involves handling
paperwork, monitoring rules and regulations, undertaking recruitment and dismissal, allotting
compensation, etc.
TRANSFORMATION OF HR
HR cannot transform itself alone. Transforming the role of HR belongs to the CEO and to every line
manager. This is because the line managers are responsible for both processes and outcomes of the
company and are answerable to both shareholders and customers .These managers should lead the
way in fully integrating HR in companies’ real work by becoming HR champions themselves, by
forming partnership with HR and by holding HR responsible for delivering organisational excellence.
THE NEED FOR HR –WHY HR MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER
Companies currently face five critical business challenges, which require the organizations to build
new capabilities. This eventually generates the need for HR to bridge the gap. The five business
challenges are—
1. Globalization‐ This demands managers in the organisations to think globally and act locally
to meet local demands. Mangers also need to increase their knowledge about international
customer, commerce, competition and take in consideration various aspects of the global
business like volatile political situation, fluctuation in exchange rate , global trade issues and
unfamiliar culture while making business decisions and participating in global trade.
2. Profitability through growth‐ Companies need to increase their revenue for raising
profitability. To achieve this, they need to undergo acquisitions, mergers or joint ventures
Anuj, Bunny, Divya, Kumar Vaibhav, Nitin, Sachin, Sanjiv Page 1
HRM A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES GROUP 11 (SECTION D)
by integrating different organisation’s processes and culture or they need to become more
innovative and creative by allowing free flow of information and learning among employees.
3. Technology‐ The need of the hour for managers is to make judicious use of technological
development to stay ahead in the information curve. Mangers would be required to make
usage of technology viable and productive for the organisation.
4. Intellectual capital‐ Knowledge has become vital for competitive advantage, especially for
services industry. This distinguishing feature is derived based on intellectually capable
manpower. The challenge for organisations would be to find, assimilate, develop,
compensate and retain such talented individuals.
5. Change, Change and More Change‐ The greatest competitive challenge that companies face
is adjusting to continuous change. To survive and be successful, companies need to detect
emerging trends earlier than competitors and make rapid decisions and thus companies
need to keep on transforming.
HR’S NEW ROLE
BECOMING A PARTNER IN STRATEGY EXECUTION‐ The article reiterates that HR needs to become a
partner in executing strategy in order to be useful to the organisation. It further explains that to
bring about this situation, the companies’ executive team would be responsible for making the
companies’ strategies but it is the HR ( which would form a part of the executive team) that would
guide on discussion on how should the company be organised to carry out the strategy. To
undertake this role HR needs to follow the following steps‐
1. HR should be responsible for designing organisational architecture. This would give clarity to
mangers on the factors to concentrate upon.
2. HR must be responsible for conducting an organisational audit. This would help managers
identify the components that need to be changed to in order to facilitate strategy execution.
3. HR should identify methods for renovating the part of organisational architecture that needs
an upgrade. HR managers should propose, create and debate the best practices.
4. HR must take a stock of its own work and set clear priorities. HR would need to cooperate
with mangers to systematically take up initiatives.
BECOMING AN ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERT‐ The article talks about the need for the HR to overcome
their traditional image of rule making authority to that of an administrative expert. Hr would need to
improve the efficiency of both its own function and that of the entire organisation. Improving
efficiency and rethinking the work procedure, would reduce cost and improve HR’s credibility to
become a partner in executing strategy.
BECOMING EMPLOYEE CHAMPION‐ The article explains that the HR professionals must be
accountable for ensuring that the employees are engaged, committed and contribute fully. HR must
take responsibility of training line management about the importance and attainment of high
employee morale. HR can also alleviate morale issues and can represent employees’ concern before
the management and eventually build employees’ trust.
BECOMING A CHANGE AGENT‐ The new HR can take up the job of building the organisation’s
capacity to embrace and capitalize on change. HR can make sure that the change initiatives like
creating high performing teams, reducing cycle time for innovation or implementing new technology
Anuj, Bunny, Divya, Kumar Vaibhav, Nitin, Sachin, Sanjiv Page 2
HRM A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES GROUP 11 (SECTION D)
are defined, developed and derived in a timely way. HR’s role is to replace resistance to change with
resolve, planning and results and excitement about the possibilities by creating a change model e.g.
GE’s (Asking Who, Why, What, How) model. The most important challenge facing the companies is
change of their culture. HR must follow the following steps to bring about a new culture‐
1. HR must define and clarify the concept of culture change.
2. HR must articulate why culture change is central to business success.
3. HR must define a process to access and measure gap between current and desired cultures.
4. HR must identify alternate approaches to creating culture change.
For example, HR played an important role in changing the culture at Sears.
CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE OF SENIOR EXECUTIVES
In order to fulfil the new agenda of HR activities, the senior executives need to change their
perspective about HR in the following ways‐
1. Communicate to the organisation that the “soft stuff “ matters‐ Senior managers should
demonstrate that the soft stuff like culture change and intellectual capital that are the HR
issues, do matter.
2. Explicitly define the deliverables from HR and hold HR accountable for results‐ A company
has a better chance of achieving goals if senior management clearly state the expectations
from the HR.
3. Invest in innovating HR practices‐ senior managers should facilitate HR to adapt innovative
practices. Investing in HR practices should involve both learning and implementing the new
practices in the unique company situation.
4. Upgrade HR professionals‐ senior managers can drive the new mandate for HR by improving
the quality of the HR staff. HR staff should have relevant knowledge and expertise to
improve the effectiveness of HR activities.
HARD WORK AHEAD
HR professionals must work professionally, must focus more on deliverables than on getting work
done, must articulate their role in terms of value they create, must create mechanisms such that
business results quickly follow, lead cultural transformation, etc. to meet the expectations of their
organisations. At the same time senior managers should understand the benefit of intellectual
capital and organisational capability as well as overcome prior biases against HR and thus demand
more of HR functions.
Anuj, Bunny, Divya, Kumar Vaibhav, Nitin, Sachin, Sanjiv Page 3
HRM A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES GROUP 11 (SECTION D)
A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES: CRITICAL REVIEW
"Should we do away with HR?" has been a widely debated question recently. The profession of
human resources has been at crossroads. Although people are questioning both the value and the
need for HR, as a matter of fact, HR has never been more necessary. The challenges facing today's
businesses demand organizational capabilities i.e. speed, responsiveness, learning and teamwork.
And HR is uniquely positioned to deliver organizational capabilities, if it abandons many of its
traditional functions, assumes an entirely new role and develops a new agenda. In the article, "A
New Mandate for Human Resources," Ulrich argues that many companies brand their human‐
resources managers as "incompetent, value‐sapping support staff" useful only for shuffling
paperwork and dealing with red tape. "It's time to destroy the stereotype and unleash HR's full
potential," the author opines.
The ideas in the article cover the changed role of human resource management in the present
global economy & constantly changing global scenario. The argument by Ulrich is new for many of
us who have grown up seeing HR perform the more traditional activities like staffing and
compensation. He says HR should be defined by what it delivers, not by what it does. HR should be
focused on results‐‐for example, by executing strategy and developing better ways to manage
benefits and information, he says. He argues that the language of human resources management
must change from the functions of personnel administration to how human resources must be
managed to add value to an organization. To add value, management must know how to create
value out of its workforce.
The solution, according to the author, is to create an entirely new role for the field that focuses it
not on traditional HR activities but on business results that enrich the company's value to
customers, investors, and employees. Ulrich dwells upon four broad tasks for HR that would allow
it to help deliver organizational excellence. First, HR should become a partner in strategy execution.
Second, it should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed. Third, it should
become a champion for employees. And fourth, it should become an agent of continual change.
Fulfilling this agenda would mean that every one of HR's activities would in some concrete way
help a company better serve its customers or increase shareholder value. Of course the HR can’t
transform on its own. In fact, the primary responsibility for transforming the role of HR, Ulrich says,
belongs to the CEO and to every line manager who works with the HR staff. Competitive success is a
function of organizational excellence, and senior managers must hold HR accountable for delivering
it. This way the author has been able to focus on the various management aspects of dealing with
the HR department.
The article helps shape the thinking on how to transform HR practices so that they are aligned to
customer needs and integrated around organization capabilities. The language of the article is
characterized by synthesizing complex ideas into frameworks and tools that executives can use.
The article is full of platitudes and not quantitative research. It is recommended for business
professionals seeking to better understand how employees can better reach their potential, as well
as to any HR professional seeking to expand his or her vision of what the profession is capable of
accomplishing.
Anuj, Bunny, Divya, Kumar Vaibhav, Nitin, Sachin, Sanjiv Page 1