Chapter 9: Human Resource Management and Leadership Flashcards
The term ‘human resource management’ (HRM)
Hotly debated
Storey defines HRM as
‘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’
Boxall and Purcell define HRM as
‘the process through which management builds the workforce and tries to create the human performances that the organization needs’
Bratton and Gold argue that
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.
In terms of identifying effective leaders, HRM formulations remind leaders that human knowledge and skills are
a strategic resource that needs investment and adroit management of followers.
HRM could be defined simply as
those activities and practices associated with managing people that meet the strategic objectives of the organization.
HRM is concerned with
managing employment relationships in the workplace.
The literature identifies three major subdomains of HRM knowledge:
1) micro,
2) strategic
3) international
The largest subdomain refers to
micro HRM (MHRM)
Micro HRM (MHRM)
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.
The second domain is
Strategic HRM (SHRM),
Strategic HRM (SHRM),
Concerns itself with the processes of linking HR strategies with business strategies, and measures the effects on organizational performance
Senior HR professionals seek to affect their organization’s strategic decisions and performance through two levels of influence:
1) individual
2) organizational
1) Individual Level
HR professionals use their knowledge and interactions to influence other upper-echelon leaders.
2) Organizational Level
HR leaders can change HR policies and practices to indirectly influence line managers and employees.
The third domain is
International HRM (IHRM),
International HRM (IHRM),
which focuses on the management of people in global companies operating in more than one country.
Multinational corporations (MNCs)
Are crucial agents in the transformation of national employment management systems.
Micro HRM activities
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.
Workforce planning (AKA HR planning (HRP)), according to the CIPD
a core business process to align changing organizational needs with people strategy
Workforce planning reason to exist
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.
The workforce planning process has four stages:
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.
Workforce planning involves two broad activities:
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
Recruitment and selection
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.
Job Description
provides a description of the tasks and responsibilities that make up the job
A personnel specification
attempts to profile the ‘ideal’ person to fill the job position.
Both job descriptions and personnel specifications have been key instruments in the traditional repertoire of managers.
The main means of attracting applicants include advertising, websites, professional agencies, walk-ins and employee referrals.
Reliability criterion
Selection methods must be consistent in order to ensure a fair comparison across candidates
Using the same methods of evaluating crew
Validity criterion
the selection technique must actually measure what it sets out to measure
Performance appraisals, sometimes called ‘performance reviews’
aim to ensure that employees’ performance contributes to organizational objectives
individual performance appraisals (IPA)
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
‘transactional’ leadership
Do a good job, you get a bonus
The activities covering training and development range from:
informal on-the-job learning to formal or planned learning on an MBA programme
Human resource development (HRD)
is constituted by planned interventions in organizational and individual learning processes
Learning cycle
a concept of how adults learn from experience. It has a number of stages, the last of which can be followed by the first
From a leadership perspective, Kolb’s model
heightens awareness of the factors that inhibit as well as stimulate the learning process at work.
To be effective, work-based learning requires supportive leaders’ behaviours
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).
Rewards
the centrepiece of the employment relationship for they underscore the fact that the relationship constitutes an economic transaction
Bratton and Gold define reward as
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.
Leaders can provide two broad types of reward:
1) Extrinsic
2) Intrinsic
Extrinsic rewards
satisfy an employee’s basic needs for survival, security and recognition, which include financial payments
Intrinsic rewards
refer to psychological ‘enjoyment’ and the satisfaction of ‘challenge’, sometimes called ‘psychic income’, that an employee derives from her or his paid work.
Employee relations
used to encompass both collective and individual dimensions, union and non-union relationships within the organization
In non-union workplaces, employee relations include an assortment of HR practices covering:
(1) employee voice,
(2) communication,
(3) grievance handling
(4) employee discipline.
These four dimensions of employee relations can be operationalized both ________ or_______and without or with a union voice
informally
formally
A formal employee voice scheme
can include leaders, followers and/or union leaders participating in decision making on a governing body
Employee voice may be informal
a leader listening to suggestions from followers
Boxall and Purcell (2016) identify four strategic key goals:
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.
The Michigan model of HRM
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
The Harvard model of HRM
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
The stakeholder interests
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).
The situational factors
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
HRM policy choices
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.
The HR outcomes
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.
The long-term consequences
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.
A feedback loop
shows that long-term consequences and outputs can influence situational factors, stakeholder interests and HR policies.
The Storey model of HRM
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.
The four main elements in Storey’s model are:
beliefs and assumptions, strategic qualities, the critical role of managers, and key levers
Strategic qualities
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’
The critical role of managers
adds extra understanding by emphasizing the role of leaders at every level of the organization in the effective delivery of HR practices
The key levers element in the model
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
Ulrich’s original model highlights four key roles that HR leaders need to adopt to add the greatest value to the organization:
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.
Critiquing the Human Resource Management Discourse
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
