Chapter 1

Introduction to
Human Resource
Management

Part One | Introduction

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain what human resource management is and how
it relates to the management process.
2. Show with examples why human resource management
is important to all managers.
3. Illustrate the human resources responsibilities of line
and staff (HR) managers.
4. Briefly discuss and illustrate each of the important
trends influencing human resource management.
5. List and briefly describe important trends in human
resource management.
6. Define and give an example of evidence-based human
resource management.
e.g. Restaurant turnover
100% & 27%
 Involving Everyone by Deployment

Deployment of policies from the top

 Vision - long term strategy

 Mission - medium term
 Tactics - short term
 Concreted actions

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve

rational outcome(s).
 Analyzing the Needs

• A company needs to know its current status

before making planning changes

 Data needs to be collected and analyzed

 The objective is to create a plan
 Where are we now?
 Where do we want to go?
 How will we get there?
 The starting Point

A company needs to know its current status before

making plans to manage change

 Structure - management organization

 Culture - background
 Leadership - relationships and role models
 Team working - effectiveness of empowerment
 Communications - what is in place?
The Nature of Work - Control and
Freedom Factors

Managerial control & direction

Individual freedom to act

Maslow (1943) and Herzberg (1966), point to factors that are intrinsic to work:
• Motivators, such as interesting and varied work,
• Development opportunities,
• Recognition, etc.
Others, such as Goldthorpe et al (1968) stress job security and decent wages
Alienation
Managerial control & direction

Alienation

Individual freedom to act

Mayo (1995) describes three basic assumptions in relations :

• Employee treated fairly and honestly, and that information will be

provided
• Employees security and certainty in return for their loyalty
• Employers recognize and value employees past and future contribution, to
satisfy the need for fulfillment, satisfaction and progression
Anarchy
Managerial control & direction

Alienation

Anarchy

Individual freedom to act

• If management simply abdicates any concern for control and co-ordination

(e.g. pretending they are offering 'empowerment' yet, in reality, denying any
accountability for the results)

•As organizations have adopted survival strategies of cost reduction and

productivity improvement
 Down-sizing
 De-layering
Apathy
Managerial control & direction

Alienation

Apathy Anarchy

Individual freedom to act

Often, the result of de-layering and so-called ' empowerment' is a dispirited

workforce and a lack of anyone prepared to take decisions or accept
responsibility.
Achieving
Managerial control & direction

Alienation Achieving

Apathy Anarchy

Individual freedom to act

What we seek is a careful balance between managerial control, and

individual freedom to act. 'controlled freedom' To build an achieving
organization by:
• Managers need to consistently show equitable behavior (justice & fairness)
• Equitable behavior, in time, builds trust in employees.
• Trust generates commitment.
• Commitment generates organizational success.
Psychological Contracts (Peter Herriott)

The individual The

offers: organization
offers:
Loyalty 1970s Security
Compliance Promotion
Good citizen ship Care
Accountability 1990s A job
Flexibility Higher salary
Long hours
Learning 2010s Employability
Learning to learn Flexible contract
Clear added value Individualized
reward
The Impact of Japanese Culture

In companies that have successfully adopted

Japanese philosophy, the nature of work has not
changed but the psychological contract is certainly
different
 It is not possible to 'bolt on' Japanese ideas
 The 'raw fish syndrome'
 Changing the contract means changing the
culture and this is a lengthy process
Human Resource Management at Work
• What Is Human Resource Management (HRM)?
 The process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating
employees, and of attending to their labor relations, health and
safety, and fairness concerns.
• Organization
 People with formally assigned roles who work together to
achieve the organization’s goals.
• Manager
 The person responsible for accomplishing the organization’s
goals, and who does so by managing the efforts of the
organization’s people.
Concept of HRM
• The traditional personnel manager - functional
 Mediating between management and employees
 Recruitment, training, pay and rewards
 Administration, explaining management's expectations

• The new concept - deployed HRM management

 HRM is at the centre of business strategy
 Management of the people is important as any other aspect of
management
HRM Management Activity

• Successful HRM involves:

 The degree of integration of HRM into business

strategy
 The degree of devolvement of HRM practices to line
managers and team leaders
Efficiency v Effectiveness
High
Disciplinarian Strategic Actives
Concern for efficiency

- Procedures - Vision & Miss

- Punishment - Implementation

Time Server Fetish for New idea

-Not motivated -Talks but no action

- Liability - Flavor of the month

Concern for effectiveness

Low High
 The Management Process

Planning

Controlling Organizing

Leading Staffing
Human Resource Management Processes

Acquisition

Fairness Training

Human
Resource
Management
Health and Safety (HRM) Appraisal

Labor Relations Compensation

Personnel Aspects of a Manager’s Job
• Conducting job analyses
• Planning labor needs and recruiting job candidates
• Selecting job candidates
• Orienting and training new employees
• Managing wages and salaries
• Providing incentives and benefits
• Appraising performance
• Communicating
• Training and developing managers
• Building employee commitment
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
• You can put the best systems in place but failing to hire the right people will diminish every thing
• As a manager you are interested in achieving results using people
• 68M from 118M work in SMEs
What is a Manager?
 There is a lot of debate about this and this is for good
reason. It has been found that good
managers produce good employees that produce
business success. So the search has been
going on to find out what good managers do and how
to teach others to be like them.

 Hertzberg Definition: A manager is somebody in a

role in which they can be held accountable for the
output of others
Line and Staff Aspects of HRM
• Line Manager
 Is authorized (has line authority) to direct the work of
subordinates and is responsible for accomplishing the
organization’s tasks.
• Staff Manager
 Assists and advises line managers.
 Has functional authority to coordinate personnel activities
and enforce organization policies.

• Sales or Production
• HR, IT, QC

Human resource managers are usually

staff managers. They assist and advise line
managers with recruiting, hiring, and
compensation. However, line managers still
have human resource duties.
Role of Human Resource Manager

• Personnel Role
• Welfare & Counsellor’s Role
• Administrative Role
• Fire-fighting and Legal Role
Operative Functions

• Employment
• Human Resource Development
• Compensation Management
• Human Relations
Operative Functions

• Employment
• Human Resource Development
• Compensation Management
• Human Relations
Good Management Behavior
• Behavior
 Listening skills
 Role model
 Gives feedback

• Attributes are noted and tend to be copied

 Sets the standard for culture change
 Emphasizes the importance of deployment
 Types of Manager
Pro-active

Business Engineering
Manager Manger
Commercially Technically
Oriented Oriented

Sales Financial
Manager Manager

Reactive
Line Managers’ Specific HRM
Responsibilities
1. Placing the right person on the right job
2. Starting new employees in the organization (orientation)
3. Training employees for jobs that are new to them
4. Improving the job performance of each person
5. Gaining creative cooperation and developing smooth
working relationships
6. Interpreting the firm’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
 Human Resource Managers’ Duties

Functions of
HR Managers

Line Function Coordinative Staff Functions

Line Authority Function Staff Authority
Implied Authority Functional Authority Innovator/Advocacy

• Makes sure that line • Assisting & advising

Managers implement line mangers, advices
the companies HR the CEO on better HR
polices practices and policies
FIGURE Human Resources Organization Chart for a Large Organization
FIGURE Human Resources Organization Chart for a Small Company

• There is generally about

one human resource
employee per 100
company employees.
 Human Resource Specialties

Recruiter

Labor relations
specialist EEO coordinator
Human
Resource
Specialties
Training specialist Job analyst

Compensation
manager
 New Approaches to Organizing HR

New HR Services Groups

Transactional HR Corporate Embedded Centers of

group HR group HR unit Expertise

• A group offering • Assisting Top • To assist in managers • Are like specialized

specialized HR services management in in specialized HR consulting firms
for employees (Call developing strategic departments by within the company
centers) plans providing localized giving advice in
HRM assistance specific areas such as
change

IBM Example, ¼ of large US business employed top HR executives with no HR Experience

Trends Shaping Human Resource
Management

Globalization
and Competition
Trends

(“Leverage”) and Technological

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

Economic
Challenges and
Trends
FIGURE Trends Shaping Human Resource Management
FIGURE Employment Exodus: Percent of employers who said they
planned as of 2008 to offshore a number of these jobs

Imports and exports of the US 47Bn/60 – 562/80 – 4.3Tn/08, balance 3.5Bn/60 – *19.4Bn/80 – *695Bn/2008

Technological Trends: Internet, Mobile, Dell Call centres, Zara

Trends in the Nature of Work

Changes in How We Work

High-Tech Service Knowledge Work

Jobs Jobs and Human Capital

Blue & White Workers 2/3 of the US working In general best jobs that
force work in producing require more education
and delivering services. and more skills
JIT, Mathematics,
From brawn to brains Technology, e.g. Bank
inquires
TABLE 1–1 Demographic Groups as a Percent of the Workforce, 1986–2016

Workforce is becoming older and

more multi-ethnic.
Workforce and Demographic Trends

Demographic Trends

Generation “Y”
Trends Affecting
Human Resources
Retirees

Nontraditional Workers

More Family or Dual centric with different values and ICT empowered

41% are bringing retirees back, 34% projects related to retirement rates,
31% semi-retired.
FIGURE Gross National Product (GNP)
FIGURE Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes
 Important Trends in HRM

The New HR
Managers

Strategic High-Performance
HRM Human Work Systems
Resource
Management
Evidence-Based Trends Managing
HRM Ethics

HR
Certification
Meeting Today’s HRM Challenges

The New Human Resource

Managers

Acquire broader
Find new ways to
Focus more on business
provide
“big picture” knowledge and
transactional
(strategic) issues new HRM
services
proficiencies
TABLE 1–2 Some Technological Applications to Support HR

Technology How Used by HR

Application service providers ASPs provide software application, for instance, for processing
(ASPs) and technology employment applications. The ASPs host and manage the services
outsourcing for the employer from their own remote computers

Web portals Employers use these, for instance, to enable employees to sign up
for and manage their own benefits packages and to update their
personal information

Streaming desktop video Used, for instance, to facilitate distance learning and training or to
provide corporate information to employees quickly and
inexpensively

Internet- and network- Used to track employees’ Internet and e-mail activities or to monitor
monitoring software their performance

Electronic signatures Legally valid e-signatures that employers use to more expeditiously
obtain signatures for applications and record keeping

Electronic bill presentment Used, for instance, to eliminate paper checks and to facilitate
and payment payments to employees and suppliers

Data warehouses and Help HR managers monitor their HR systems. For example, they
computerized analytical make it easier to assess things like cost per hire, and to compare
programs current employees’ skills with the firm’s projected strategic needs
FIGURE Effects CFOs Believe Human Capital Has on Business Outcomes
High-Performance Work Systems
• Increase productivity and performance by:
 Recruiting, screening and hiring more effectively
 Providing more and better training
 Paying higher wages
 Providing a safer work environment
 Linking pay to performance

A high-performance work system is a set

of HRM policies and practices that
together produce superior employee
performance.
 Evidence-Based HRM

Providing Evidence for

HRM Decision Making

Actual Existing Research

measurements data studies
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
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
Conclusion
• HRM is the responsibility of every manager.
• The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse.
• Current economic challenges require that HR managers
develop new and better skills to effectively and efficiently
deliver and manage HR services.
• The intensely competitive nature of business today
means human resource managers must defend their
plans and contributions in measurable terms.
KEY TERMS

organization
manager
management process
human resource management (HRM)
authority
line authority
staff authority
line manager
staff manager
functional authority
globalization
human capital
Exercise
• What are the key functions of a traditional Personal
Manager?

• What are the non traditional HRM practices should a

manager Play?

• Based on your experience, list some examples of HRM

in your daily work?

• Identify the most important trends effecting HRM in

Jordan?
Some of the material included in this file are a
Copyright © 2011 for Pearson Education, Inc.
publishing as Prentice Hall