Human Resource Management, or HRM, is relatively new to many countries; however, in the United States of America the term has been employed for over fifty years.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Michelle Armit HRM Coursework 14/03/03

Human Resource Management, or HRM, is relatively new to many countries; however, in the United States of America the term has been employed for over fifty years. It appeared as a personnel function system, which promised flexibility, responsiveness, and a noticeable increase in the value of the employee. In addition, HRM promised to increase importance to the individual and the longer-term strategic issues due to the reduction in heavy industries and increase in services and high technology in the most productive way.

This approach to personnel amplified in the late eighties, due to increasing globalisation, increased competitive pressures, and a generally ruthless business environment. It is these issues that initiated managers to improve internal corporate efficiency therefore improving external competitiveness. This resulted in the expansion of all resources, including the human resource.

There does not seem to be a single definition of the term ‘Human Resource Management’ (HRM) which both people management practitioners and the academic community agree with. In addition,

“Trade unionists argue that HRM is a slippery concept meaning different things to different people” (Monks, 1994).

Guest (1987) refers to a model of HRM that is distinguished by:

“...being people-orientated throughout with an ethic of respect for the individual, maximisation of individual talent, well developed well-integrated policies and practices, genuine consultation and involvement, and clear challenging goals with feedback”.

Legge (1989) supports this view further; he defines HRM as being a central strategic management task,

“It is the ability of a company to utilise its personnel at all levels to create and sustain a competitive advantage.”

An organisation achieves comparative advantage by applying its people effectively, putting emphasis on their knowledge and initiative to meet a clearly distinct purpose. HRM is aimed at recruiting competent, devoted people, managing and rewarding their performance and developing key capabilities.

Human resource management has many distinguishing features, its prompt has been the success of the Japanese at managing people, and despite the fact their firms seldom have personnel departments, so HRM represents a rethink by personnel professionals. It places increased importance on development through training and career planning and has the capability of persuading all managers that the improvement of their human resources is their job and not the personnel departments. (See appendix 1)

HR managers should be organised to adopt and tackle threats in their activities and they should remain in close contact with counterparts in other organisations. “They should, at the same time, function as eyes and ears of the organisation.”

Source: www.hinduonnet.com

For every organisation, obtaining the most experienced employees and corresponding them to the job, which suits them best, is important for the success of this organisation. Human resource managers were introduced to provide a link between senior management and prospect employees. In the past human resource managers were associated with performing the administration function of an organisation, for example managing employee benefits questions or employing, interviewing, and appointing new personnel in agreement with policies and requests that top management have established. Today's human resources managers control these tasks and, gradually more, consult top executives in relation ...

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Source: www.hinduonnet.com

In a small organisation, a human resources generalist will control all features of human resources work so an extensive range of knowledge is necessary. The responsibilities of human resources generalists can fluctuate extensively, influenced by the needs of their employers. In a large corporation, the top human resources executive frequently extends and manages personnel programs and policies.

A human resource executive's job is to provide communication between management and employees; this forms a large portion of their responsibility. Employee training provides the manager with an excellent device for communicating company goals, policies, rules, and procedures. Many employees in organisations will be given orientation training as this assists in retaining employees, reducing unnecessary inquiries with the HR department, and helps the new recruit to more rapidly become an effective team member. New laws often require the HR executive to provide training to supervisors and managers in the company's obligations under the new laws. The HR department will commonly supply training programs to managers and supervisors throughout the company on a number of human resource related topics. (See appendix 2 for more details on the average make-up of the HR department.) Orientation programs introduce the employee to the company's procedures for attaining human resource related information and employee benefits. Nevertheless, company policies and procedures vary frequently. These changes offer training prospects for pro-active HR executives. The difference between the human resource department and the human resource executive can be explained as,

“The HR department maintains confidential information in employee personnel and medical files; the HR executive must insist that the information remain confidential at all times”

The human resource department is compelled to educate mangers and supervisors regarding changes in their duties created by new laws and regulations. The ‘Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act’ entail new requirements on managers and supervisors who hire, instruct, and dismiss employees. These managers and supervisors are required to be conscious of these laws as their actions could lower or increase the probability that an employee would sue the company. Training can also

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benefit companies, as it would allow them to apply their equal employment opportunity policies therefore avoiding discrimination lawsuits. For example, training supervisors and managers about managing diversity and preventing sexual harassment and discriminatory behaviour can educate these personnel to avoid putting themselves and the company into trouble.

A human resource supervisor deals with the everyday activities within a human resource department, this could include duties such as: training general supervisors on the best possible way to manage employee performance issues, perform particular training programs, and dealing with labour relations including discipline matters and grievances. A general supervisor manages a set of production supervisors and is accountable for their training and assisting to carry out their supervisory responsibilities. One of the main responsibilities of this position is the motivation of the supervisory staff in order that they can effectively motivate their workers.

A human resource manager in a company is in charge of the supervisors. (See appendix 3 for an illustration of business teams and the flexible borderlines within the business.) The needs for human resource managers is to guide, train, and assess all supervisor’s abilities in the workplace therefore allowing them to proceed with greater issues arising in the company. The following quote emphasises the point that the human resource manager is in fact in charge of the supervisor and provides a brief description of the job the supervisor will carry out in the organisation,

“ HR should remind its supervisory personnel to avoid the following pitfalls when conducting performance evaluations: (1) Over strictness - rating everyone too low too often suggests that a supervisor expects too much. (2) Over generosity - rating everyone too high too often suggest that a supervisor expects too little. (3) Mediocrity - rating everyone in the middle to often suggest that a supervisor fears appearing too negative or too complimentary.”

The main functions of a supervisor are to improve training for employees, such as, leadership and motivation principles and also increase their promotion opportunities. Good quality supervision of employees is the solution to a successful organisation. Supervisors must understand how the global economy is compelling us to modify our work patterns, they must formulate self managed and focussed work teams, empower employees with responsibility, build trust, manage change within not only the company but also the economy, coordinate employees between departments, this allows employees to gain experience and feel significant, manage conflict within the team, involve employees in planning, implementing and maintaining and finally, expand communication within the organisation. Supervisors are expected to act as the connection between management and non-management staff, which can quite often entail balancing different views. Supervision is the ability to achieve tasks by means of other people. To attain this, the supervisor must ensure that all members of staff plainly appreciate the objectives of their own positions and the objectives of their

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work areas. The successful result of any task involves successful communication and interaction between every member of staff and their supervisor. No single method of supervision is continuously successful, however, a good quality supervisor is sensitive to the work requirements of their environment, and also the needs of their team. The job of a supervisor in any organisation is challenging because it encompasses many activities it may sound simplistic, nut the job of a supervisor is rarely easy. A supervisor must deal with the tasks of top subordinates and at the same time be satisfying the requests of upper management. A supervisor is truly the "middle man”, in search of satisfying everyone around him or her.

In a broad sense, a supervisor is expected to engage, transfer, reprimand, and be in charge of the dismissal of staff under their control. They have to deal with staff grievances and discipline and provide recommendations to the management. The quality of supervisors and their training programmes are becoming key factors in many organisations, as it is believed neglecting supervisors will cause serious organisational malfunctions in the future.

Even though supervisors seldom have the title of "manager”, they are still managers due to the nature of their work. They must perform the crucial functions of human resource management: planning, organising, leading, and controlling all of the aspects that include their specific aspect of the operation. In many organisations the role of managers and supervisors have a tendency to over lap. Supervision entail operating at close range by overseeing, controlling and dealing with situations on the spot as they arise whereas management involve controlling distantly by using other administrative means. The supervisor deals with day-to-day problems and concerns but a manager should deal with future issues and therefore be able to think and plan ahead. In practice supervisors are liable to skip necessary detail and concentrate on forward planning, whereas managers are more eager to attend to detail, often in order to reimburse for their lack of motivation, vision and decision making ability. Supervisors employ technical, human, and theoretical skills on a daily basis. Managers rely extensively on supervisors to provide information and to make recommendations. Without the assistance of supervisors, planning and policy-making becomes a travesty.

To summarise, HRM has developed from various elements of thought and is best portrayed as a loose philosophy of people management rather than a determined method. It is a topic, which after many years continues to draw question and conflict. As a result, practitioners and textbooks use a varied and sometimes opposing assortment of understandings. HRM has a mixture of definitions but there is general agreement that it is more familiar with business strategy than preceding models, particularly personnel management. Successful organisations depend on qualified and effective supervisors but the best organisations flourish by efficiency of their human resource managers. They are expected to lead, facilitate, and employ new initiatives, to manage actively the process of organisational change and to take ownership for integrating business and human resource strategies. This therefore explains why they are extremely important to businesses. The philosophy of human resource management is based on the simple belief that human resources are the most important assets in achieving and persistent business success. This realisation is the introduction behind the creation of human resource management resulting in organisations taking a tactical approach to the management of their employees. In this way human resource management linked the human resource benefit to the accomplishment of business objectives. Since this theoretical awareness human resource management and human resource management development has become increasingly significant in the way it supports corporate strategy.

Bibliography

Books

‘ Supervisory Studies’ 5th Edition, PW Betts
‘The effective Supervisor’ 1998, John Adair
’25 Key Topics in Business Studies’ Chris Sivewright
‘Human Resource Management, Key Concepts and Skills’, P. B. Beaumont
‘The complete A-Z Economics & Business Studies Handbook, 2nd Edition, Nancy Wall, Ian Marcousé, David Lines & Barry Martin