Managing Human Resource
Question #1
Business Justification for Managing HR in a Professional, Ethical and Just Manner
Professional, ethical and just management of Human Resource contributes to positive outcomes influenced by increased employee engagement, attraction of talented and motivated employees, and employee retention. Management ensures value addition to an organization through ethical success, effective decision-making, efficacy of recruitment and selection processes, and the development of a supportive, transparent culture. The approach reduces cases of unethical behavior in the workplace, promotes professionalism, and improves the performance of employees resulting in improved operational performance. Moreover, a just, ethical and professional HRM promotes justice, alleviates conflict and cost of addressing conflicts and corporate scandals and contributes to the achievement of set short- and long-term goals and objectives.
Question #2
Evolution in Contemporary Organization
For centuries, personnel management included activities such as recruitment/selection, training, salary administration, and industrial relations, which relate to HRM. HRM has evolved from the administrative stage in the 19th and early 20th-centuries to the welfare and administration phase (1940s to 1970s), the HRM and Strategic HRM stage (1970s-1990s), and Strategic HRM thereafter up to now. In the administration stage, supervisors, early specialists, and line managers performed the personnel functions. These functions included administrative functions such as employee welfare, wage records, and disciplinary procedures. The welfare and administration stage extended focus to include specialist and more professional personnel management. Examples include increased prioritization of employee welfare, professional recruitment and selection, and training focused on ensuring effectiveness and organizational success. The third stage made personnel/employee management a function of HRM, which integrated strategic approaches to improve organizational effectiveness. In the strategic HRM stage, the HR management looks into issues that affect employees, incorporate technologies in HRM, and apply strategies to ensure competence, improved performance, competitiveness, and organizational efficiency and success. Examples of strategies include employee development, efficient communication, promoting job satisfaction and employee morale/motivation through better rewards, pay, benefits, and work environment, and providing essential support and resources, and incorporating new technologies among others (Rotich, 2015).
Question #3
Summary of HR Objectives
The effective utilization of human resources and facilitating efficient coordination and communication are two fundamental objectives of HR. HRM focuses on ensuring the organization recruits/selects and hires competent, talented and motivated personnel. As highlighted by Itika (2012), HRM focuses on ensuring that the organization’s human resources are utilized effectively to ensure the achievement of the set organizational objectives. The implementation of strategic HR approaches aim to improve the productivity and performance efficiency of every employee. These targets depend greatly on the effective use of the resources, which contributes to the realization of competence and efficiency in organizational work. The management focuses on ensuring the workforce benefits the organizations by promoting the achievement of well-defined aims and contributing to organizational success and creation of value and shareholder wealth.
Secondly, as an HR focuses on building coordination and ensuring efficient communication. Departmental coordination and effective peer and employee-management coordination play a critical role in improving the organization’s capacity to achieve its goals and objectives. HRM coordinates and ascertains a harmonious functionality between different departments, units, and within the organization. Effective management of HR involves the functional and efficient use of human resources, proper direction, and implementation of measures that facilitate coordination and communication. Elements HR planning, evaluation, training, professional development, and associations play key roles in advancing the objective. Efforts towards the improvement of coordination and efficiency of communication in an organization further include fostering hierarchy and ensuring the proper flow of information, sharing of ideas, and coordinating organizational processes (Al Adresi & Darun, 2017).
Question #4
HR Functions between Organizations in Different Sectors and of Different Sizes
HR functions compare and differ significantly depending on the sector or size of the organization. An analysis of a public authority, a national private company, and an SME highlights the differences. Firstly, HR functions in a government/public organization include the provision of employees with the capacity to manage public services. HRM focuses on creating systems that support employees and result in the achievement of long-term goals. The functions may include systems for managing employee benefits, healthcare, personal leave, compensation, recruitment, employment and retention strategies, and implementation of disciplinary measures among others. The HRM in public sector focuses mainly on the implementation of systems that promote the wellbeing of the people without prioritizing profit efficiency but rather focusing on improving cost-effectiveness of operations and efficiency for the benefit of the people.
The HR functions in national private companies and SMEs compare and contrast to the public sector significantly. National private companies focus mainly on the improvement of profit efficiency, acquisition of shareholder wealth, and the continued success and development of the organization. An emphasis is placed on the achievement of set goals and objectives. The approaches compare to the public sector regarding the recruitment, selection and employment strategies but places greater emphasis on employee competence and performance. Moreover, HR focuses on cost-effectiveness and profitability. Similarly, SMEs focus on profitability and recruit employees with the competence to provide services that meet customers’ needs, attracts and retains customers. It further prioritizes cost-effectiveness, effective pricing, and efficiency like national private companies and government-sector entities (Yahiaoui et al., 2015).
Question #5
Main Criteria and Methods Used to Evaluate the Contribution of the HR Function
Different criteria and methods used for evaluating the contribution of HR function. The discussion of the main criteria and methods offers an in-depth understanding of the contribution of the HR function. The metrics are applied for determining the effectiveness and value of HR initiatives. Major criteria or methods include SLA’s and KPI’s, staff surveys, return on investment, and benchmarking with other organizations. To start with, the ROI is a metric for the measurement of the financial return on an investment applied in HR for the determination of an organization’s performance or the contribution of the HR function. It includes the assessment of the net profit compared to the organization’s overall net worth. The application of the metric in the evaluation of the contribution. For instance, an organization may focus on determining the contribution of training as a HR function by calculating the total financial gain to the organization from the process. The measurement helps determine the effectiveness of the training program. KPIs are applied for the determination of the contribution of HR to the organization by checking its performance based on HR-related outcomes while SLAs allows the monitoring/tracking of HR cases progress by checking whether cases are resolved and the time taken in the process (Iveta, 2012).
The use of staff surveys and benchmarking with other organizations allows an effective evaluation of the contribution of the HR function. Staff members working in different departments and within an organizations experience the impact of HR processes and function directly. Engaging staff and creating a platform for involvement and feedback reception gives the management an opportunity to understand the contribution of the HR function from the perspective of employees. Staff surveys offer critical information that helps the management to determine the effectiveness or inefficiency of a HR function. Similarly, benchmarking with other organizations offers an opportunity for understanding the contribution of the HR function in a different organization and a clear comparison. The comparison outlines the contribution of the function in the organization identified for benchmarking compared to own organization. This offers an evaluation that shows the contribution of the HR function.
Moreover, the application of a balanced scorecard or HR dashboard to HR metrics should include an identification of the HR vision and mission, the inclusion of a customer, financial, internal, and the learning and growth perspective. Identifying the HR mission/vision helps to outline the essential elements of HR such as compensation, cultural maps, employees’ skills, and contribution of different departments. Including the customer perspective allows the adoption of supportive platforms/structures, while the financial perspectives looks into issues of cost-effectiveness, cost-reduction, and consider the ROI of investing in people and ways of improving employee skills. It is also important to consider the hiring process, organizational culture, and efficiency of communication, compliance, quality of services, and the training and development programs and to ensure their effectiveness. Importantly, the scorecard should outline how people learn, acquire skills, and grow. The different elements of the scorecard are important for presenting HR metrics such as ROI among others.
Question #6
Article Review
The article identifies the connection between employee engagement and positive business outcomes. It argues for the need for businesses to invest in employee engage as a strategy for advancing the capacity of the organization to perform properly, record improved operational efficiency, and the achievement of set goals/objectives. According to the article, engaging employees in organizational processes results in employee satisfaction, which positively contributes to customer satisfaction, profitability of the organization, higher returns of assets, and shareholder value. The author asserts the importance of investing in gathering employee feedback, involving employees in decision-making, and allocating adequate resources and time for engagement activities, programs, and objectives. The involvement of employees develops the reputation of the organization and attracts talented employees. The measures further result in a motivated and satisfied workforce, which translates to higher employee retention. Importantly, an engaged workforce ensures that employees work harder, perform efficiently, recommend the organization, and stay longer.
These findings are sufficiently convincing. The implementation of strategic approaches in the management of human resources requires an understanding of the different factors that contribute to positive organizational outcomes. Engaging employees is an effective way on improving job satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and better performance. Employees who feel values are more likely to remain motivated and committed to an organization, its values, and objectives. Engagement activities such as getting and implementing employees’ feedback in decision-making processes motivates them significantly. Other measures such as effective performance management, a satisfying recognition and reward system, better work environment, opportunities for growth, adequate resources and support, and training and development are critical for employee development. These measures influence their attitudes and how they feel about their employer and the organization and thus are likely to act for the benefit of the company. Employees who are not valued are more likely to show less concern for the organization/employer.
The findings show that high performance working and investment in people impacts organizational performance greatly. Employees play the most significant role in determining the performance of an organization. Adopting strategies for the improvement of their capacity to perform efficiently has a direct impact on the performance of the organization. When individual employees perform better and more efficiently, the operational performance of the organization improves. The findings of the report show that investing in employees contributes to positive organizational outcomes. Employees who are equipped with the essential resources, support, and training they require to perform their roles effectively show greater contribution towards an organization’s pursuit for success, growth and development. Investing in employees ensures that they have the capacity to perform their roles and responsibilities more competently thus resulting in higher organizational performance. Poor investment in people affects their efficiency and the ability to perform key responsibilities effectively, which has a negative impact on organizational performance. High performance working places emphasis on the management of organizations with the aim to stimulate effective employee engagement and commitment. The increased involvement informed by high performance working causes the achievement of high levels of performance and positive results. Therefore, companies should invest in people and implement high performance working strategies.
Reflection
I gained significant knowledge regarding importance of professional ethical and just management of human resource, the evolution of HRM, HR functions, and how the functions differ from organization to another. Additionally, the assignment resulted in a deeper understanding of how to evaluate the contribution of HR functions and the importance of employee involvement in promoting organizational performance and success. The knowledge is applicable in the workplace. As a HR personnel, I will focus on the integration of professionalism, ethical principles, and just approaches into HR management to ascertain improved performance, reduced conflicts, cost-effectiveness and organizational success. Professionalism and justice in the processes and functions of HR like attracting and recruiting talented and motivated workforce and team members will be critical. Focusing on implementing efficient strategy in recruiting, selecting and developing the workforce will influence the better performance and the achievement of set goals/objectives. The knowledge/skills will enable me to support, train, and equip employees/team members to perform critical roles and ensure proper evaluation of management approaches to determine their feasibility/sustainability. Applying employee involvement and high performance working into working practices will include strategies that include employees. Feedback, communication, and interaction platforms, training and development programs and other measures will prove fundamental in promoting positive organizational outcomes.
Bibliography
Al Adresi, A. & Darun, M. R., 2017. Determining relationship between strategic human resource management practices and organizational commitment. International Journal of Engineering Business Management. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1847979017731669 Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1847979017731669
[Accessed 6 August 2019]
Itika, J. S., 2012. Fundamentals of human resource management. African Public Administration and Management series, Volume 2, pp. 21-254. Available at: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/22381/ASC-075287668-3030-01.pdf [Accessed 13 August 2019]
Iveta, G., 2012. Human resources key performance indicators. Journal of Competitiveness, 4(1), pp. 117-128. Available at: https://www.cjournal.cz/files/89.pdf [Accessed 6 August 2019]
Rotich, J. K., 2015. History, evolution and development of human resource management: a contemporary perspective. Global Journal of Human Resource Management. VOl 3, No 3.pp. 58-73. Available at: https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/EJBM/article/view/21196/21540 [Accessed 6 August 2019]
Yahiaoui, N., Anser, A. & Lahouel, S., 2015. Human resource management and public organizations. Global Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol 3, No 2. pp. 1-12. Available at: http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Human-Resource-Management-and-Public-Organizations.pdf [Accessed 6 August 2019]
