The New Human Resource

Management Process

Chapter 1

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The ORGANIZATION
Whilst an organization might be viewed as an entity, or a unit, it
has to by definition interact with something else, be it
customers, suppliers shareholders, etc.
Organizational structures have moved away from traditional
forms to encompass more ‘virtual’ types and ‘networked’ forms
now, often resulting in a highly complex configuration design.
It is important to understand how the organization interacts with its
environment and how the environment acts upon the organization. In
addition to this is the need for organizations to sustain themselves in an
arguably increasingly competitive environment.
 ORGANIZATION
‘A social arrangement for achieving controlled
performance in pursuit of collective goals’

•Highlight the pervasive influence of organizations on our lives

•‘Organizational Dilemma’ – that organizational goals may
differ from those of the individuals working in each unit and
therefore, resulting to HR functions
-Buchanan and Huczynski- 2010:8

4
 Why Study HRM?

• Competitive advantage (PEOPLE as primary source)

• Employee engagement
• Job satisfaction
• Willingness to perform

• Organizational success

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HR Evolution

• 1970s Personnel Administration to Personnel Management to

Human Resource Management – “People Management”

• Movement from Administrative function (keeping personnel

records, processing pay and so on, often referred to as
‘transactional’ approach) to a transformational function
(utilization of human resources for specific goals, such as
profit maximization, shareholder value..)

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 HRM Past and Present
Past Present
HR managers were paper HR managers improve
pushers and simply organizational revenues
organized personnel files and profits by creating the
right working environment

HR functioned more as a HR functions more as a

cost center productivity center.
Technology helps improve
efficiency

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 Productivity

• The amount of output organizations receive per unit of input

• What does it require?
• Effectiveness: “Did we do the right thing?”
• Efficiency: “Did we do things right?”

• Technology can improve efficiency

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 Consider This
Imagine the future of two comparable companies with similar
revenues and identical market share:
Company A         Company B
• Fails to recruit top talent • Recruits better
• Does not nurture talent • Trains and develops better
• Has high turnover • Retains talent
• Spends time defending their • Avoids lawsuits
practices in court

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 New HRM Challenges

HR executives say: Non-HR executives say:

• Employee engagement • Development of next
generation organization
• Development of next leaders
generation organization
leaders • Loss of key workers and their
skill sets
• Compensation and benefits
offerings • Compensation and benefits
offerings
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 Most Critical HRM Competencies

• Business acumen (ability to make good judgement and quick

decision)
• Organizational leadership
• Critical evaluation
• HR expertise

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 Other New HRM Challenges

• Labor demographics
• Knowledge workers
• Pace of change

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 HRM’s Critical Dependent Variables

• Productivity
• Employee engagement
• Turnover
• Absenteeism

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 The HRM Strategic View

• Took hold within the past 30 years

• Shifted from reactive to proactive
• Gives organizations a sustainable competitive advantage
• Carries out organizational ideas and reaches goals of the
overall strategic plan

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 The Influence of Social Media

• Recruitment
• Selection
• Onboarding
• Training and development
• Performance management

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 Four Major HRM Skill Sets

• Technical
• Interpersonal
• Conceptual and design
• Business

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Four major HRM skill sets.
• The HRM skill sets include technical skills, interpersonal skills, conceptual
and design skills, and business skills.

Technical skills include the ability to use methods and techniques to perform
a task.
• Interpersonal skills provide the ability to understand, communicate, and
work well with individuals and groups through developing effective
relationships. Empathy is included here - The ability to put yourself in
another person’s place—to understand not only what that person is saying
but why the individual is communicating that information to you.
• Conceptual and design skills provide the ability to evaluate a situation,
identify alternatives, select an alternative, and implement a solution to the
problem.
• Business skills provide analytical and quantitative skills, including the in-
depth knowledge of how the business works and of its budgeting and
strategic-planning processes that is necessary for a manager to understand
andHuman
Lussier, contribute to the profitability
Resources Management of the2019.
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 Line Versus Staff Management

• Line managers
• Control what the organization does by creating processes
and assisting employees who produce what the business
sells
• Staff managers (including HR managers)
• Advise line management on issues within their fields of
specialized knowledge

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HR Responsibilities of Line Management

• Legal considerations
• Labor cost controls
• Leadership and motivation
• Training and development
• Appraisal and promotion
• Safety and security of employees

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 Major HRM Discipline Areas

• Legal: EEO and diversity management

• Staffing
• Training and development
• Employee relations
• Labor and industrial relations
• Compensation and benefits
• Safety and security
• Ethics and sustainability

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Major HRM Discipline Areas
1. Legal: EEO and Diversity Management: Involves managing the organization’s employee-related actions to ensure
compliance with equal opportunity laws and regulations as well as organizational affirmative action plans (when
such plans are required or desired).
2. Staffing: Involves getting people interested in working for the company—going through the recruiting process,
selecting the best candidates who apply, and getting them settled into their new jobs.
3. Training and Development: Involves teaching people their basic job and teaching them the things that they will
need to move up in the organization as people above them resign or retire.
4. Employee Relations: Involves coaching, conflict resolution, counseling, and disciplining the workforce as needed. It
also involves leadership and team-building efforts within the organization.
5. Labor and Industrial Relations: Involves working with the laws and regulations that control the organization’s labor-
related relationships with their workforce. This is also the area that manages any relationships the organization has
with unions.
6. Compensation and Benefits: Involves compensation planning, salary surveys, benefits management, incentive
programs, and more. This area deals with how we reward the people who work for us.
7. Safety and Security: Involves occupational safety and/or health, stress management, and employee assistance
programs
8. Ethics and Sustainability: Involves seeing to it that the organization acts in an ethical and socially responsible
manner. This is often done through working on codes of ethics and making sure employees live by those codes.
Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of today without sacrificing future generations’ ability to meet their
needs.
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 Resources for HRM Careers

• These are professional associations and certification

programs that help employees obtain and advance in HR
careers:
• The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
• American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)
• The Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)
• WorldatWork

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 Professional Liability

• The organization and managers can be sued by employees

who feel their rights under employment laws have been
violated
• For this reason, it is important to understand HRM concepts
as thoroughly as possible

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 Practitioner’s Model for HRM

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 Practitioner’s Model for HRM
1. Strategy, the legal environment, and diversity management are critical to the
organization’s stability and success

2. Pair employees with fitting jobs to allow the organization to achieve success over
longer periods of time

3. Maintain employee satisfaction and productivity through training, evaluation,

development, counseling, and employee and labor relations

4. Reward employees through compensation and benefits packages

5. Protect and expand the reach of the organization

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 Trends and Issues in HRM
• Employee engagement improves productivity
• Give employees the right tools
• Create trust
• Listen and act
• Remember employees are more important than customers
• Treat all employees with respect

• HRM and organizational agility

• Create a digital culture
• Develop the ability to thrive on change
• Explore the value of “on-demand” workers
• Review legacy processes and structures

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