Chapter 1 Flashcards
The Strategic Role of Human Resources Management
What does HRM stand for?
Human Resource Management
What are some general examples of HRM activities
Hiring, training, appraising, compensating, and developing employees
Is HRM it’s own separate function?
Yes, usually accompanied with its own human resources or HR manager
What is an organization?
A group consisting of people with formally assigned roles who work together to achieve the organization’s goals.
What is a manager?
Someone who is responsible for accomplishing the organization’s goals and who does so by managing the efforts of the organization’s
people.
Who is often responsible for the completion of management functions?
Formal managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs
What is the management process?
Involves completion of the five basic functions in an organization: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.
What is human resources management?
The management of people/ employees in organizations to drive successful organizational performance and achievement of the organization’s strategic goals
What does the mutual gains model indicate on HRM
Activities, processes, and procedures should benefit both organization and its employees
What are HR professionals responsible for?
Ensuring organization attracts, retains, and engages diverse talents needed to meet operational and performance commitments
Primary responsibility for managing workforce to improve organization’s performance and strategic achieve goals
What is an HR professional’s job?
Ensure the organization
- finds and hires the best individuals available
- develops their talents
- create productive work environment
- continually build and monitor workforce
Concept of HRM can be summarized as….
-What
-How
-Why
of labour and talent management in org
Understanding WHAT practices help regulate employees (e.g., recruitment, compen-sation, performance management, training, etc.)
Clarity HOW these practices or systems impact employee, team, business unit, and company-level
attitudes, behaviours, and outcomes
Considers WHY specific HR practices needed for each unique business setting
Name the HRM systems
- Job analysis (Important)
- Workforce planning
- Recruitment (Important)
- Selection (Important)
- Training & development (Important)
- Performance management (Important)
- Compensation & rewards
- Employee & labour relations
How does HRM formulate and implement HRM systems?
Pick one that aligns with organization’s strategy to ensure that the workforce has the competencies and behaviours required to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives.
Important that strategy aligns with company’s strategic plan
How does a company’s competitive environment and internal strengths
or weaknesses impact the company’s strategic situation
- By impacting the company’s strategic situation, the strategic situation impacts the strategic plan like a chain effect.
Ex:
- From the top of the firm down to front-line employees, organizational goals are viewed as a chain/hierarchy of goals. Organizational leaders set long-term or strategic goals (such as “double sales revenue to $16million in fiscal year 2025”). The top management team then sets goals for the units that flow from, and make sense in accomplishing the leader’s goals. Then their subordinates set goals, and so on down the chain. (LOOK AT FIGURE 1.1)
Is HRM static or dynamic?
Dynamic
World of HRM continues to evolve.
- Government initiatives in employment, equity, training,
and employment legislation changes often
- Organizations adopt new practices and competition for talent change
-Labour force demographic
-Impact of labour mobility (between companies and between
countries)
Therefore it’s important to stay up-to-date
What is a strategic plan?
The company’s plan for how
it will match its internal
strengths and weaknesses with
external opportunities and
threats in order to maintain a
competitive advantage.
How are strategic plans made?
Strategic planner asks “Where are we now as a business, and where do we want to be?” then formulates a strategic plan to help guide company to the desired destination
Examples of strategic planning
- Grocery store decides to offer grocery delivery or online orders
-Apple branches out into selling watches
What is a business model?
A company’s method for making money in the current business environment.
What are the functions of a business model?
Pin points:
- Who the company serves
- What product or service it provides
- What differentiates it
- It’s competitive advantage
- How it provides its product or service
- Most important: how it makes money
Example of business model being used
Business model assessing how Google makes money will find they don’t make money by requiring people to pay for searches but rather by offering targeted paid advertisements based on what people are searching for
What is a strategy?
A course of action the company can pursue to achieve its strategic aims.
How is a strategy developed?
Every org. has a strategy that can be formally developed or emerges from organizational activity
Other words for strategy?
- Mission
-Objective - Goals
A.K.A what the business is doing
What is strategic management?
The process of identifying and
executing the organization’s
strategic plan by matching
the company’s capabilities
with the demands of its
environment.
What are a company’s capabilities?
It’s strengths and weaknesses
What are the demands of an environment?
A company’s competitors, customers, and suppliers
What must employers do when designed HR policies and practices
They must understand the role of these policies and practices in achieving the companies’ strategic goals
What is human capital?
The knowledge, education,
training, skills, and expertise of
an organization’s workforce.
Examples of human capital management
- Service occupations (consultants and lawyers) emphasize education and knowledge
- IT related (Google, Capgemini, Cognizant) demand high levels of human capital and employ many knowledge workers
- Traditional manufacturing jobs (assembly line workers) are increasingly high tech, bank tellers, retail clerks, bill collectors, mortgage processors, and package deliverers need level of technological sophistication they didn’t need few years ago
What do human capital management have to do in order to be successful?
Strategic human capital management must link the organizational strategy and objectives with the employees’ sense of identity or purpose, their sense of community, and their intrinsic values
What do research studies show about effective HR practices?
Effective HR practices are related to better organizational performance
Organizational benefits: range from better team performance to increased employee empowerment that affects productivity of employees
What do resource based views say about effective HR practices
HR practices contribute to development of embedded knowledge of a firms:
- culture
- history
- processes
- context
which are non-imitable
What 3 HR practices have a statistically significant positive impact on important accounting measures of performance?
- Profit sharing
- Results-oriented performance appraisal
- Employment security
have positive impact on accounting measures of performance (return on assets and return on equity)
What 3 high performance HR practices have a positive relationship with employee retention, productivity, and corporate financial performance (gross rate of return on capital)
- Comprehensive employee recruitment and selection procedures
- Incentive-based compensation and performance management systems
- Extensive employee involvement
and training
What is evidence-based HRM?
Use of data, facts, analytics,
scientific rigour, critical
evaluation, and critically
evaluated research/case
studies to support human
resources management
proposals, decisions, practices,
and conclusions.
A major contribution of HRM is making decisions based on it
What can evidence-based HRM simply be summarized as?
Using best available evidence in making decisions about the HRM practices that the company is focusing on
What are the three sources for evidence?
- Actual measurements
- Existing data
- Research studies
Give an example of actual measurements
How did the trainees like this program?
Give an example of existing data
What happened to company profits after we installed this training program?
Give an example of research studies
What does the research literature conclude about the best way to ensure that trainees remember what they learn?
What are metrics?
Statistics used to measure activities and results.
True or false: HR professionals need to be able to measure the value and impact of their organization’s human capital and HRM practices
True, they can be measured using various metrics
Traditional operational measures vs. todays
Traditional: focused on the amount of activity and the costs of the HR func-tion (such as number of job candidates interviewed per month, cost per hire, etc.)
Todays: need to reflect the quality of people and the effectiveness of HRM
initiatives that build workforce capability
What type of information do new operational measures provide?
Critical information that can be linked to organizational outcomes:
- Productivity
- Product or service quality
- Sales
- Market share
- Profits.
Example of new operational measures and the information they provide?
% of first-choice job candidates accepting job offer indicates strength of organization’s employment brand in the marketplace –> directly affects the quality of the workforce
In the context of environmental influences what are the 3 main things all managers (including HR responsible) must do to be effective
- Must monitor environment on ongoing basis
- Assess impact of any changes
- Be proactive in responding to such challenges
What are the 6 major external environmental factors affecting HRM policies and practices
- Labour market issues
- Economic conditions
- Technology
- Government
- Globalization
- Environment
What are the 3 major internal environmental factors affecting HRM policies and practices
- Organizational culture
- Organizational climate
- Management practices
Define the influence of labour market issues
Changes to the workforce composition, including protected groups (visible/ethnic minorities, women, Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities), generational differences (traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z), and contingent workers
Define the influence of economic conditions
Affect supply and demand for products, impacting quantity and
quality of employees required, and ability to pay/give benefits
Define the influence of technology
Controlling data and privacy
Define the influence of the government
Abiding by provincial and national standards
Define the influence of globalization
Managing the workforce in an intense, hypercompetitive global economy
Define the influence of the environment
Managing sustainability and corporate social responsibility
Define the influence of organizational culture
Values, beliefs, and norms of
organizational members
Define the influence of organizational climate
The atmosphere’s impact on
employee motivation, job performance, and productivity
Define the influence of management practices
Organizational structure and
employee empowerment
How has the concept of diversity changed in recent years
Extends beyond traditional idea of demographics to a more historical, political, and socioeconomic understanding of society, including our workforce
Understanding that there are underrepresented or marginalized groups in many orgs and institutions
What is equity?
Equity refers to the fairness embedded in associated processes
What are the aims of equity goals?
Ensuring all employees have equal access to opportunities to succeed and grow in the organization
What is diversity?
The variations in group characteristics, which includes identity (e.g., ethnic background, age, gender, religion) as well as cognitive
skills and personality traits
A.K.A
The attributes that humans are likely to use to tell themselves, “that person is different from me.”