hrm study tips

7/28/2019 HRM Study Tips

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HRM IN THE MELTING POT

The role of HRM in the modern organisation

Life used to be delightfully simple. If you wanted to pursue a career in

what used to be known as personnel management, you enteredemployment first as a personnel administrator, and then worked your way

up through personnel officer to be a personnel manager. Should you be

incredibly talented and/or fortunate, you might even aspire to become apersonnel director. It was a straightforward system, and it meant, for

most, that they didnt have to work in any part of the business other than the

personnel department a fact that brought problems of its own, as we

increasingly recognise today.

In the modern world, however, we have to live with increasing levels of

complexity and we also have to live with the fact that the language ofpersonnel management has almost completely been superseded by the

vocabulary of human resource management. For some this has been

nothing more than a change of label, seemingly bolstered by an improve-ment in status (human resource management sounds so much more

impressive than personnel management); for others it reflects somethingfar more meaningful. Where personnel management was concerned

principally with procedures, routines and administrative efficiency, human

resource management, properly understood, addresses itself to much wider,

much more open-ended and much more strategic issues. Clearly both areimportant organisations need a mixture of administrative efficiency andstrategic leadership but is is rare, indeed almost unheard of, to find any

business which has both a personnel department and a human resourcefunction.

Capon draws the following distinction between personnel management and

HRM: Personnel management is directed very much towards the

personnel or workforce and the personnel department managing their work-

related needs. In comparison the HR department considers the strategic

contribution that employees make to the organisation. Issues concerningthe number of employees, the skills required and the cost to the organisation


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of employees with the required skills are of prime importance to the HR

department. Gradually, since the 1980s, personnel departments have

become HR departments and personnel officers have become HRadvisers, and these changes have occurred almost regardless of whether or

not the organisation has formally adopted the principles and practices of

HRM itself.

What are these principles and practices? According to John Storey, what

is distinctive about HRM is that it is an approach to employment manage-ment which seeks to obtain competitive advantage through the strategic

deployment of a highly committed and skilled workforce, using an array of

cultural, structural and personnel techniques. Whereas personnel

management operated in a framework of command-and-control, HRM istypified by the following characteristics:

A concentration on horizontal authority and reduced hierarchy in

delayered structures, with a blurring of the formerly rigiddistinction between management and non-management.

Wherever possible, responsibility for people management is

devolved to line managers; the role of HR professionals is tosupport and facilitate line management in this task, not to control

it. HR planning is proactive and fused with corporate planning, so

that HR issues can be treated strategically in an integrated manner.

Employees are viewed as assets with the potential for growth and

development: one of the key purposes of HRM is to identify this

potential and nurture it in line with the needs of the organisation.

HRM suggests, furthermore, that both managerial and non-managerial employees have a common interest in the success of

the organisation, so the HR department seeks to ensure that all

employees are aware of this and are committed, or engaged, inthe pursuit of common goals.

It is vital for ABE students to understand the above principles, and

particularly to recognise that it is emphatically not the job of the HR

manager or the HR department to manage the organisations people.That job is best done by the organisations line managers but, as I have

indicated above, they can benefit from the contribution and expertise of the


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HR function. And crucial to a proper appreciation of the role of HR in

any business is acceptance of these HRM principles:

A recognition of the strength of the relationship between people

performance and organisational success implying in turn that ifpeople can be developed, then they can make an even bigger

contribution to the organisations achievements in both the shortand the longer term; and

A belief in the fundamental mutuality of interest between the

organisation, its managers and its workforce, so far as the survivaland growth of the business are concerned thus encouraging allmoves towards employee involvement, commitment and

engagement.

Central to the effectiveness of HRM is the need for HR strategies, policiesand practices to be fully integrated with the strategy and strategic needs of

the organisation. All HR policies should be coherent across policy areas HR planning, people resourcing, learning and development, reward and

recognition, employee relations and so forth - and throughout hierarchies,

and HR practices must be adjusted, accepted and used by line managers andemployees as part of their everyday work. It is clearly foolish for a

company to claim that it encourages teamwork and team-building, whilstsimultaneously rewarding people solely as individuals; it is equally foolish

for a business to suggest that any employee could move from the lowestrung of the corporate ladder to the top, if they show sufficient talent, whilst

also creating a glass ceiling through the creation of a fast-track

development programme for highly-qualified employees.

At the same time, we have to recognise that not all organisations are the

same. Some are large, some are small; some function in a highly-competitive, cut-throat environment, others can operate comfortably without

any real customer pressure; some use a lot of technology, whereas othersrely on people; some are local, others are national, multinational or even

global; some are public, like governmental agencies, and others are private,

activated by the desire for profit. All may differ in their beliefs about

people, the availability of resources for people development, and the HRstrategies they seek to pursue. In fact, it seems, according to Budhwarand Sparrow, that there are four broad types of HR strategy, each leading in

turn to four types of HR practice:


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(1) A talent acquisition HR strategy: this emphasises attracting the

best human talent from external sources, and therefore concentrates on

turning the organisation into an employer brand or an employer ofchoice. Such a strategy would be appropriate for, say, an advertising

agency, a management consultancy, a TV production company or a

scientific research agency.

(2) An effective resource allocation HR strategy: the goal with this

kind of organisation is to maximise the use of existing human resources byalways having the right person in the right place at the right time, so a great

deal of attention is paid to HR planning and the people resourcing function.

This kind of strategy could fit a large commercial airline (low-cost or

otherwise) or a global car manufacturer.

(3) A talent improvement HR strategy: here the business aims to

maximise the talents of existing employees by continuously training them

and guiding them in their jobs and careers, so the enterprise seeks to become

a learning organisation, with priorities for learning and development

underpinned by a philosophy that sees all employees as assets. A talentimprovement strategy might make sense for a bank or any other type of

organisation that typically continues to offer, albeit implicitly, a virtual

promise of lifetime employment.

(4) A cost reduction HR strategy: this is designed to reduce thepersonnel costs to the lowest possible level. Clearly cost reduction may

be the strategy for any business during a period of economic recession, but it

can be applied to some organisations virtually all the time, if they are

operating in a highly competitive environment characterised by littlecustomer loyalty and by price as a key differentiator.

Becoming an HR professional

Theres no doubt about it: HRM is an exciting, fast-moving, challenging

and even inspirational function. If youve decided to pursue HRM as acareer, and prepare for the ABE examinations in the HRM stream in order toacquire the necessary qualifications to make you attractive to an employer

(or to make you even more attractive to your existing employer), then


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youve made an excellent choice. However, there are some things you

should do, and some things you should avoid.

First, be clear about your motives for wanting to become an HR

professional. These days you shouldnt be choosing HR because you

want to work with people, because there are many other jobs that afford

better opportunities for working with people. You should be consideringHR as a career for one of the following reasons:

Because you want to make a difference to peoples work lives

through the operation of an efficient and effective HR service, and

thus make a difference to the performance of the organisation thatemploys you.

Because you want to be truly professional dedicated, thorough,

imaginative, ethical, knowledgeable, businesslike and above allcompetent.

Because you want to become a continuous learner, developing

your skills and capabilities (and thus your value) as the business ofHR develops and evolves.

Second, acknowledge the fact that becoming an HR professional requires

some serious study from you: its not something which can happen merelyby reproducing platitudes about people in your examinations. There is avast body of knowledge that surrounds HRM, and you must familiarise

yourself with it. You need to buy or acquire one of the recommendedtextbooks, you must set aside some active reading periods in order

assimilate what the book contains. In addition, and especially if you dont

have any direct experience of work and organisations yourself, you mustkeep yourself up-to-date, and broaden your coverage of the HRM field, by

reading articles and features in business magazines, quality newspapers andjournals. If you have Internet access, use it periodically to undertake

Google searches on such key topics as employee engagement and

employer branding.

Thirdly, and finally, in your personal life as well as in your emerging

professional career, you should set out to become the kind of person who

ticks most if not all the boxes in the list of differential behaviours which

has been developed by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development

as part of its own vision for the competent, authoritative and knowledgeableHR practitioner.


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I wish you every success, not just in your ABE examinations, but also for

your future. With the ABE behind you, you will become a positivecontributor to what the CIPD and I believe to be the three main pillars of

progress that matter in this modern world:

(1) Wealth creation adding to the success of your organisation;(2) Wellbeing adding to the sense of fulfilment of the people who

work in your organisation;(3) A more responsible World adding to the quality of the

environment.

Written by Ted Johns, ABE Chief, HRM Programmes20 June 2008

Vignette (insert to be incorporated alongside the article, if there is sufficient

space)

The Differential Behaviours of the World-class HR Practitioner

(with acknowledgments to the Chartered Institute of Personnel &Development)

Open to trying new approaches

Seeks and generates new ideas

Considers options and evidence before making decisions

Evaluates and learns from experience

Continually self-develops in preparation for the future

Pushes at and/or determines the boundaries and/or priorities of the role

Acts as an advocate for the organisation

Takes personal ownership of the outcomes and outputs from your work

Manages conflicting demands, stakeholder needs and views

Wherever possible, seeks to build commitment to a change

Works across organisational boundaries (does not look at the organisation

purely from an HR perspective)

Enables individuals and teams to maximise their performance and

potential

Achieves results: meets or exceeds expectations

Acts ethically, legally and with integrity


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Ted Johns

Biography

Ted Johns is the ABEs Examiner for Managing People and

Personnel Administration, two core papers for the ABEs

Certificate in Human Resource Management. He is also the

Chief Examiner for the whole HRM programme, at Certificate,

Diploma and Advanced Diploma levels.

Apart from his intensive involvement with ABE, Ted Johns is also a

Chief Examiner for the Chartered Institute of Personnel andDevelopment and officiates as Chairman of the Institute of

Customer Service. He is a prolific writer, having published books

on such topics as business ethics, organisational change, time

management and customer care; in addition he writes a regular

column for Customer Management magazine and has produced

articles for People Management, Employment Relations Review,

Marketing Insights (Singapore) and Management Today. His

consultancy experience includes assignments undertaken for

Credit Suisse First Boston, National Westminster Bank, Philips,

and Prudential Assurance. Ted is an engaging, entertaining and

stimulating speaker who makes frequent keynote presentations at

both in-company and other conferences.

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