Chapter 9: Human Resource Management and Leadership

Question 1

The term ‘human resource management’ (HRM)

Answer 1

Hotly debated

Question 2

Storey defines HRM as

Answer 2

‘a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques’

Question 3

Boxall and Purcell define HRM as

Answer 3

‘the process through which management builds the workforce and tries to create the human performances that the organization needs’

Question 4

Bratton and Gold argue that

Answer 4

HRM is a strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities and commitment is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage or superior public services. This is accomplished through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices, embedded in an organizational and societal context.

Question 5

In terms of identifying effective leaders, HRM formulations remind leaders that human knowledge and skills are

Answer 5

a strategic resource that needs investment and adroit management of followers.

Question 6

HRM could be defined simply as

Answer 6

those activities and practices associated with managing people that meet the strategic objectives of the organization.

Question 7

HRM is concerned with

Answer 7

managing employment relationships in the workplace.

Question 8

The literature identifies three major subdomains of HRM knowledge:

Answer 8

1) micro,
2) strategic
3) international

Question 9

The largest subdomain refers to

Answer 9

micro HRM (MHRM)

Question 10

Micro HRM (MHRM)

Answer 10

Concerned with managing individual employees and small work groups. Similar to the ‘individual’ and ‘group’ levels of analysis in OB, MHRM draws on theory and research from psychology and sociology.

Question 11

The second domain is

Answer 11

Strategic HRM (SHRM),

Question 12

Strategic HRM (SHRM),

Answer 12

Concerns itself with the processes of linking HR strategies with business strategies, and measures the effects on organizational performance

Question 13

Senior HR professionals seek to affect their organization’s strategic decisions and performance through two levels of influence:

Answer 13

1) individual

2) organizational

Question 14

1) Individual Level

Answer 14

HR professionals use their knowledge and interactions to influence other upper-echelon leaders.

Question 15

2) Organizational Level

Answer 15

HR leaders can change HR policies and practices to indirectly influence line managers and employees.

Question 16

The third domain is

Answer 16

International HRM (IHRM),

Question 17

International HRM (IHRM),

Answer 17

which focuses on the management of people in global companies operating in more than one country.

Question 18

Multinational corporations (MNCs)

Answer 18

Are crucial agents in the transformation of national employment management systems.

Question 19

Micro HRM activities

Answer 19

Key MHRM activities are designed in response to organizational goals and contingencies, and each one contains alternatives from which leaders can choose.

Some of these key activities have been devolved to line managers (e.g. selection) while others (e.g. training) have been outsourced to specialist companies.

Question 20

Workforce planning (AKA HR planning (HRP)), according to the CIPD

Answer 20

a core business process to align changing organizational needs with people strategy

Question 21

Workforce planning reason to exist

Answer 21

The process seeks to forecast the supply and demand for skills against the requirements of future services or production delivery in a global economic context of uncertainty and rapid change.

Question 22

The workforce planning process has four stages:

Answer 22

1) An evaluation of the existing employees.
2) An assessment of the proportion of current employees that are likely to remain by the forecast date.
3) A forecast of employee requirements needed for the organization to achieve its strategic goals by the forecast date.
4) Decisions to ensure that the necessary employees are available as and when needed.

Question 23

Workforce planning involves two broad activities:

Answer 23

1) The use of statistical modelling to estimate employee supply and demand;
2) The strategic understanding and nuances associated with long-term planning, for example identifying new supply chains or investment opportunities

Question 24

Recruitment and selection

Answer 24

recruitment and selection activities collectively aim to attract a large pool of candidates from which the employer selects a candidate based upon the criteria in the job description and personnel specifications.

Question 25

Job Description

Answer 25

provides a description of the tasks and responsibilities that make up the job

Question 26

A personnel specification

Answer 26

attempts to profile the ‘ideal’ person to fill the job position.

Question 27

Both job descriptions and personnel specifications have been key instruments in the traditional repertoire of managers.

Answer 27

The main means of attracting applicants include advertising, websites, professional agencies, walk-ins and employee referrals.

Question 28

Reliability criterion

Answer 28

Selection methods must be consistent in order to ensure a fair comparison across candidates

Using the same methods of evaluating crew

Question 29

Validity criterion

Answer 29

the selection technique must actually measure what it sets out to measure

Question 30

Performance appraisals, sometimes called ‘performance reviews’

Answer 30

aim to ensure that employees’ performance contributes to organizational objectives

Question 31

individual performance appraisals (IPA)

Answer 31

The process assumes that the principal dimensions of an employee’s performance can be defined precisely, and be measured over specific periods of time that take into account constraints within the performance situation

Question 32

‘transactional’ leadership

Answer 32

Do a good job, you get a bonus

Question 33

The activities covering training and development range from:

Answer 33

informal on-the-job learning to formal or planned learning on an MBA programme

Question 34

Human resource development (HRD)

Answer 34

is constituted by planned interventions in organizational and individual learning processes

Question 35

Learning cycle

Answer 35

a concept of how adults learn from experience. It has a number of stages, the last of which can be followed by the first

Question 36

From a leadership perspective, Kolb’s model

Answer 36

heightens awareness of the factors that inhibit as well as stimulate the learning process at work.

Question 37

To be effective, work-based learning requires supportive leaders’ behaviours

Answer 37

Ramus and Steger (2000) reported that these behaviours include competence building (supporting training initiatives), dialogic communication and engagement (encouraging followers to engage and bring forward their ideas and criticisms), and information dissemination (sharing organization information).

Question 38

Rewards

Answer 38

the centrepiece of the employment relationship for they underscore the fact that the relationship constitutes an economic transaction

Question 39

Bratton and Gold define reward as

Answer 39

A package of monetary, non-monetary and psychological payments that an organization provides for its employees in exchange for a bundle of valued work-related behaviours.

Question 40

Leaders can provide two broad types of reward:

Answer 40

1) Extrinsic

2) Intrinsic

Question 41

Extrinsic rewards

Answer 41

satisfy an employee’s basic needs for survival, security and recognition, which include financial payments

Question 42

Intrinsic rewards

Answer 42

refer to psychological ‘enjoyment’ and the satisfaction of ‘challenge’, sometimes called ‘psychic income’, that an employee derives from her or his paid work.

Question 43

Employee relations

Answer 43

used to encompass both collective and individual dimensions, union and non-union relationships within the organization

Question 44

In non-union workplaces, employee relations include an assortment of HR practices covering:

Answer 44

(1) employee voice,
(2) communication,
(3) grievance handling
(4) employee discipline.

Question 45

These four dimensions of employee relations can be operationalized both ________ or_______and without or with a union voice

Answer 45

informally

formally

Question 46

A formal employee voice scheme

Answer 46

can include leaders, followers and/or union leaders participating in decision making on a governing body

Question 47

Employee voice may be informal

Answer 47

a leader listening to suggestions from followers

Question 48

Boxall and Purcell (2016) identify four strategic key goals:

Answer 48

1) Cost-effectiveness: maximizing profits or minimizing costs.
2) Flexibility: short-run responsiveness and long-run agility in response to external pressures.
3) Social legitimacy: how people are managed and led affects the ethical standing of the organization in society.
4) Power: managers aim to enhance their power as stakeholders.

Question 49

The Michigan model of HRM

Answer 49

Developed by Fombrun et al. (1984)

The model’s ‘cycle’ consists of four core HR activities: selection, appraisal, training and rewards. It emphasizes the interrelatedness and coherence of HRM activities, which requires HR strategies to have a tight alignment to the overall strategies of the business.

People are considered a means to an end or a ‘resource’

Its weaknesses are its prescriptive nature and its focus on just four HR practices, and it also ignores different stakeholders such as workers

Question 50

The Harvard model of HRM

Answer 50

The framework consists of six basic components: situational factors; stakeholder interests; HRM policy choices; HR outcomes; long-term consequences; and a feedback loop through which the outputs flow directly into the organization and to the stakeholders

Question 51

The stakeholder interests

Answer 51

recognize the importance of ‘trade-offs’, either explicit or implicit, between the interests of business owners and the interests of employees (e.g. health and wellbeing) and labour unions (e.g. a voice over investment decisions).

Question 52

The situational factors

Answer 52

influence leader choice of HR strategy. This model incorporates workforce characteristics (e.g. skilled, unskilled or professional), management philosophy (e.g. neoliberal), labour market regulations (e.g. working time directives), societal values (e.g. self-reliance) and patterns of unionization (e.g. high union membership), and suggests a meshing of product market and socio-cultural factors

Question 53

HRM policy choices

Answer 53

emphasize that a leader’s decision and actions in people management can be fully appreciated only if it is recognized that they result from an interaction between constraints (e.g. trade unions, food protection standards) and choices (e.g. high technology and high skill, high wage versus low-technology and low skill, low wage). It shows leaders as real change agents, capable of influencing organizational parameters itself over time.

Question 54

The HR outcomes

Answer 54

of high employee commitment to the goals and values of the organization are sometimes referred to as ‘organizational citizenship’, and the competence necessary to provide a high-quality product or service is linked to longer-term effects on organizational effectiveness and societal wellbeing.

Question 55

The long-term consequences

Answer 55

distinguish between three levels: individual, organizational and societal. At the individual level, the HR outputs comprise the psychological rewards that followers receive in exchange for their effort. At the organizational level, increased effectiveness ensures the survival of the firm, while, at the societal level, as a result of fully utilizing people at work some of society’s goals (e.g. employment) are attained.

Question 56

A feedback loop

Answer 56

shows that long-term consequences and outputs can influence situational factors, stakeholder interests and HR policies.

Question 57

The Storey model of HRM

Answer 57

compares HRM with ‘traditional’ or personnel management policies. It describes HR policies as well as focusing on the processes through which HR policies and practices influence employee behaviour and performance.

Question 58

The four main elements in Storey’s model are:

Answer 58

beliefs and assumptions, strategic qualities, the critical role of managers, and key levers

Question 59

Strategic qualities

Answer 59

seek to demonstrate that HRM is a matter of critical importance to strategic planning and execution. In Storey’s words, ‘decisions about human resources policies should … take their cue from an explicit alignment of the competitive environment, business strategy and HRM strategy’

Question 60

The critical role of managers

Answer 60

adds extra understanding by emphasizing the role of leaders at every level of the organization in the effective delivery of HR practices

Question 61

The key levers element in the model

Answer 61

focuses on the methods used to implement HR policies and practices. What is persuasive about the narrative is evidence of a shift away from rules as a basis of good practice, to the management of organizational culture as a means of implementing transformative change

Question 62

Ulrich’s original model highlights four key roles that HR leaders need to adopt to add the greatest value to the organization:

Answer 62

1) Strategic partner: future/strategic focus combined with business processes.
2) Change agent: future/strategic focus combined with people.
3) Administrative expert: operational focus combined with process.
4) Employee champion: operational focus combined with people.

Question 63

Critiquing the Human Resource Management Discourse

Answer 63

There is a cacophony of critical voices exposing paradox and tension in HR practices.

Selection of the ‘best’ HR practice has tended to be viewed in terms of standardizing and objectifying the selection process