Human Resource

Management

Spring 2019
Chapter 1: The Strategic Role of Human Resource Management
Learning Objectives:
• Concept of organization, manager and HRM
• The management process
• Functions and importance of HRM
• Line and Staff Aspects of HRM
• HR Manager’s functions
• Types of human resource management specialties
• The contemporary trends shaping HRM
• The new human resource managers
 Organization:
• consists of people with formally assigned roles who work together
continuously to achieve predefined goals
• Have several departments and structure to accomplish objectives

Managers are responsible for accomplishing the organization’s goals

by managing the people and resources of the organization

HRM: The process of acquiring, training, appraising, and

compensating employees, and of attending to their labor relations,
health and safety, and fairness concerns
Management process:
Planning: setting goals and standards; developing rules, procedures, plans
Organizing: managing the resources, delegating authority to subordinates;
establishing hierarchy of authority, communicating and coordinating
activities
Staffing: selecting right people for the right job, training and developing
employees; setting standards and evaluating performance, maintaining
relationship with employees, compensating employees
Leading: Getting job done through others and motivating subordinates
Controlling: Setting standards such as quality standards, or production
levels, checking and comparing actual performance with these standards;
taking corrective action and providing feedback
Overall, HR functions consists of:
Acquisition

Fairness Training

Human
Resource
Management
Health and Safety (HRM) Appraisal

Labor Relations Compensation

Ref: Google images

HR functions:

• Conducting job analyses

• Manpower Planning and recruiting job candidates
• Selecting appropriate job candidates
• Orienting and training new employees
• Managing wages and salaries
• Providing incentives and benefits
• Appraising performance
• Training and developing managers
• Building employee commitment and maintaining relations
Personnel Mistakes
• Hire the wrong person for the job
• Experience high turnover
• Have your people not doing their best
• Waste time with useless interviews
• Have your firm in court because of discriminatory actions
• Have your firm cited by OSHA for unsafe practices
• Have some employees think their salaries are unfair and inequitable
relative to others in the organization
• Allow a lack of training to undermine your department’s effectiveness
• Commit any unfair labor practices
Why Is Human Resource Management
Important?
Avoid personnel mistakes: Having proper knowledge will help to hire
right person for the job and avoid legal costs and save expensive
resources
Improve profits and performance: hiring right people for the right
jobs and motivating, appraising, and developing them will ensure
they perform best and bring profits
You too may spend some time as an HR manager! : having prior
knowledge of HRM will enable you as a manager to take a more
strategic approach towards achieving objectives
HR for entrepreneurs: managing HR is a crucial element in managing
the overall business
Line and Staff Aspects of HRM

Authority is the right to make decisions, to direct the work and to give
orders to others
• Managers usually distinguish between line authority and staff authority
Line authority traditionally gives managers the right to issue orders to
other managers or employees whereas Staff authority gives a manager the
right to advise other managers or employees
• Managers with line authority are line managers. Those with staff (advisory)
authority are staff managers
• Staff managers generally run departments that are advisory or supportive,
like purchasing and human resource management. Human resource
managers are therefore usually staff managers
A Line Manager’s HR Duties

1. Placing the right person in the right job

2. orienting new employees in the organization
3. Training employees for jobs that are new to them
4. Improving the job performance of each person
5. Gaining cooperation and developing smooth working relationships
6. Interpreting the company’s policies and procedures
7. Controlling labor costs
8. Developing the abilities of each person
9. Creating and maintaining department morale
10. Protecting employees’ health and physical condition
Figure 1-1: Human Resource Manager’s Duties

Functions of
HR Managers

Line Function Coordinative Staff Functions

Line Authority Function Staff Authority
Implied Authority Functional Authority Innovator/Advocacy
Human Resource Manager’s Duties
There are three distinct functions of a HR manager:
A line function: directing the activities of the people in his/her own
department
A coordinative function: coordinating personnel activities, a duty also
known as functional authority through which he or she ensures that line
managers are implementing the firm’s human resource policies and
practices
Staff (assist and advise) functions: Assisting and advising line managers,
assist in hiring, training, evaluating, rewarding, counseling, promoting, and
firing employees. Administers the various benefit and helps other line
managers to comply with different occupational laws
Figure 1-2: human resource management specialties

Recruiter

Labor relations
specialist EEO coordinator
Human
Resource
Specialties

Training specialist Job analyst

Compensation
manager
Types of human resource management
specialties:
Recruiters: Search and create profiles for qualified job applicants.
Equal employment opportunity (EEO) coordinators: Investigate and
resolve EEO grievances; examine organizational practices for potential
violations and work on EEO reports
Job analysts: Collect and examine information about jobs to prepare job
descriptions and job specifications
Compensation managers: Develop compensation plans and handle the
employee benefits and rewards program
Training specialists: Plan, organize, and arrange training activities based on
employee needs
Labor relations specialists: manage and coordinate all aspects of union
management relations
 Trends Shaping Human Resource
Management
Globalization
and Competition
Trends

Technological
Trends
Trends in the
Nature of Work
Trends in HR
Management
Workforce and
Demographic
Trends

Economic
Challenges and
Trends

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

 Figure 1-3: Trends Shaping Human Resource Management

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

The contemporary trends shaping HRM

Globalization: refers to the tendency of firms to extend their sales,

ownership, and/or manufacturing to new markets abroad such as Dell
PCs and iphones are produced in China
Competition: globalization brings more competition, and more
pressure to improve quality
• For consumers it means lower prices and higher quality products but
workers have to work hard and jobs are less secured
The contemporary trends shaping HRM
Technological advancement: new technologies are increasingly been
used for many human resource management applications, such as
facebook recruiting, online screening tests, online payroll system,
human resource information system
Online training platforms are used to provide training to employees
Mobile applications are being used to track employee locations
Trends in the Nature of Work

Changes in How We Work

On demand Knowledge Work

workforce and Human Capital

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

Workforce and Demographic Trends

Demographic Trends

Trends Affecting
Human Resources

Unbalanced Workforce

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

 Figure 1-4: Demographic Groups as a Percent of the Workforce, 1986–2016

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

The new human resource managers
• They focus more on strategic, big picture issues
• They use new ways to provide transactional services
• They take an integrated, talent management approach to managing human
resources
• They manage ethics
• They manage employee engagement
• They measure HR performance and results
• They use evidence-based human resource management
• They add value
• They have new competencies
• HR certification
Strategic Human Resource Management
formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that
produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company
needs to achieve its strategic aims
Today’s human resource managers are more involved in longer term,
strategic big picture issues, so human resource management has now
become more strategic
Strategic HRM helps the company to achieve it’s overall long-term
objectives (it’s vision and mission)
New ways of providing transactional services:
HR managers outsource more benefits administration and safety
training to outside vendors
They use technology, such as company portals to allow employees to
self-administer benefits plans
Recruiting job applicants through facebook, online testing to
prescreen job applicants
Arrange centralized call centers to answer HR-related inquiries from
supervisors
Managing Ethics
Ethics
• Standards that someone uses to decide
what his or her conduct should be
HRM-related Ethical Issues
• Workplace safety
• Security of employee records
• Employee theft
• Affirmative action
• Comparable work
• Employee privacy rights

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

 Evidence-Based HRM

Providing Evidence for

HRM Decision Making

Actual Existing Research

measurements data studies

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

Evidence-Based HRM
Measuring HR performance and results:
• Human resource managers nowadays need performance measures
(or metrics) to measure skill and talent
• Human Resource (HR) metrics are measurements used to determine
the value and effectiveness of HR initiatives, typically including such
areas as turnover, training, return on human capital, costs of labor,
and expenses per employee
Employee engagement
Today’s human resource managers need the skills to foster and
manage employee engagement because employees are valuable
assets of the organization
Adding Value
Managers focus on performance, measurement, and evidence
It has become necessary that HR managers must add value,
particularly by boosting profitability and performance in measurable
ways
High-performance work system: a set of human resource
management practices that together produce superior employee
performance
 The human resource manager’s competencies
 Leadership and Navigation The ability to direct and contribute to initiatives and processes within the
same organization
 Ethical Practice The ability to integrate core values, integrity and accountability throughout all
organizational and business practices
 Business Acumen The ability to understand and apply information with which to contribute to the
Organization’s strategic plan
 Relationship Management The ability to manage interactions to provide service and to support the
organization
 Consultation The ability to provide guidance to organizational stakeholders
 Critical Evaluation The ability to interpret information with which to make business decisions and
recommendations.
 Global and Cultural Effectiveness The ability to value and consider the perspectives and backgrounds of
all parties
 Communication The ability to effectively exchange information with stakeholders
HR Certification
HR is becoming more professionalized
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
SHRM’s Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)
• SPHR (Senior Professional in HR) certificate
• GPHR (Global Professional in HR) certificate
• PHR (Professional in HR) certificate

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education

Take home points:
• An organization consists of people who work together to achieve particular goals and it has several
departments and structures; a Manager manages the people and resources to achieve the objectives of the
organization
• Human resource management is the process of managing and looking after all the core activities related to
human assets so that organization’s goals can be accomplished
• There are five core managerial activities and seven main functions of human resource management
 Human Resource Management is important to avoid personnel mistakes, improving profits and
performance, to take a more strategic approach towards achieving objectives and managing HR is a crucial
element in managing the overall business
• HR managers are usually staff managers with line function, coordinative function and staff function
• There are six different types of HR specialties
• Trends such as globalization, competition, technological advancement, nature of work, economic conditions,
workforce and demographic changes are affecting human resource management
• The new HR managers are more strategic, take talent management approach, manage ethics, measure
performance, and focus on evidence and measurements to take actions
• The new HR managers have a set of competencies which enable them to manage resources effectively
References:
• Dessler, G. (2017), Human Resource Management. Pearsons.