Unit 1: Intro. to HR Management Flashcards
Learning Objective 1:
Explain how human resource managers and other managers can have rewarding careers by helping their firms gain a sustainable competitive advantage through the strategic utilization of people?
OUTCOME 1:
Understanding human resource management practices and issues can help you better compete in the marketplace—as an employee, manager, or HR manager. HR managers who have a good understanding of their firm’s business can help it achieve its strategies—whatever they may be—through the effective utilization of people and their talents. An organization’s success increasingly depends on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its employees. To “compete through people,” organizations have to do a good job of managing human capital: the knowledge, skills, and capabilities that have value to organizations. Managers must develop strategies for identifying, recruiting, and hiring the best talent available; developing these employees in ways that are firm specific; helping them generate new ideas and generalize them throughout the company; encouraging information sharing; and rewarding collaboration and teamwork among employees.
Learning Objective 2:
OUTCOME 2:
Globalization has become pervasive in the marketplace. It influences the number and kinds of jobs that are available and requires that organizations balance a complicated set of issues related to managing people working under different business conditions in different geographies, cultures, and legal environments. HR strategies and functions have to be adjusted to take into account these differences. The fast pace of globalization and corporate scandals over the years have led to a new focus on corporate social responsibility (good citizenship) and sustainability (a company’s ability to produce a good or service without damaging the environment or depleting a resource).
Learning Objective 3:
OUTCOME 3:
Technology has tended to reduce the number of jobs that require little skill and to increase the number of jobs that require considerable skill, a shift we refer to as moving from touch labour to knowledge work. This displaces some employees and requires that others be retrained. In addition, information technology has influenced HRM through HRISs that streamline HR processes, make information more readily available to managers and employees, and enable HR departments to focus on the firm’s strategies. The Internet and social media are also affecting how employees are hired, work, and are managed.
Learning Objective 4:
OUTCOME 4:
To contain costs, organizations have been downsizing, outsourcing, offshoring, furloughing, and leasing employees, as well as enhancing productivity. HR’s role is not only to implement these programs but also to consider the pros and cons of programs such as these and how they might affect a company’s ability to compete, especially if they lead to the loss of talented staff members.
Learning Objective 5:
OUTCOME 5:
The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, and organizations are doing more to address employee concerns and to maximize the benefit of different kinds of employees. But to benefit from those differences, managers need to look past the obvious differences between employees and see not so obvious differences, such as how they think, learn, work, solve problems, manage their time, and deal with other people. By first seeing the differences, exploring them, and then discovering how they can provide value to the organization, HR managers can leverage those differences.
Learning Objective 6:
OUTCOME 6:
In working with line managers to address their organization’s challenges, HR managers play a number of important roles; they are called on for strategic advice and ethics counsel, various service activities, policy formulation and implementation, and employee advocacy. To perform these roles effectively, HR managers must have a deep understanding of their firm’s operational, financial, and personnel capabilities. HR managers who do and are creative and innovative can help shape a firm’s strategies so as to respond successfully to changes in the marketplace. Ultimately, managing people is rarely the exclusive responsibility of the HR function. Every manager’s job involves managing people. Consequently, successful companies combine the expertise of HR specialists with the experience of line managers and executives to develop and use the talents of employees to their greatest potential.
Responsibilities of the HR Manager
- Strategic Advice and Counsel
- Service
- Policy Formulation and Implementation
- Employee Advocacy
Competencies of the HR Manager
- Business Mastery
- Business Acumen
- Customer Orientation
- External Relations - Personal Credibility
- Trust
- Personal Relationships
- Lived Values
- Courage - HR Mastery
- Staffing
- Performance Appraisal
- Reward System
- Communication
- Organization Design - Change Mastery
- Interpersonal Skills & Influence
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Reward System
- Innovativeness and Creativity
Competencies of the HR Manager
- Business Mastery
- Business Acumen
- Customer Orientation
- External Relations - Personal Credibility
- Trust
- Personal Relationships
- Lived Values
- Courage - HR Mastery
- Staffing
- Performance Appraisal
- Reward System
- Communication
- Organization Design - Change Mastery
- Interpersonal Skills & Influence
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Reward System
- Innovativeness and Creativity`
HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCY MODEL:
Business Mastery
HR professionals need to know the business of their organization thoroughly. This requires an understanding of its economic and financial capabilities so that they can become a key member of the team of business managers to develop the firm’s strategic direction. It also requires that HR professionals develop skills at external relations focused on their customers.
HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCY MODEL:
HR Mastery
HR professionals are the organization’s behavioural science experts. HR professionals should develop expert knowledge in the areas of staffing, development, appraisals, rewards, team building, and communication.
HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCY MODEL:
Change Mastery
HR professionals must be able to manage change processes so that their firms’ HR activities are effectively merged with the business needs of their organizations. This involves interpersonal and problem-solving skills, as well as innovativeness and creativity.
HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCY MODEL:
Personal Credibility
Like other management professionals, HR professionals must establish personal credibility in the eyes of their internal and external customers. Credibility and trust are earned by developing personal relationships with one’s customers, demonstrating the values of the firm, standing up for one’s own beliefs, and being fair-minded when dealing with others.
HUMAN RESOURCE COMPETENCY MODEL:
Personal Credibility
Like other management professionals, HR professionals must establish personal credibility in the eyes of their internal and external customers. Credibility and trust are earned by developing personal relationships with one’s customers, demonstrating the values of the firm, standing up for one’s own beliefs, and being fair-minded when dealing with others.
TERM:
Capitalist Economy
A Capitalist Economy is characterized by the private ownership of capital, the allocation of resources through market mechanisms, and the profit imperative.
In terms of employment:
- duties and obligations of the employer and employee are asymmetrical: The employer issues orders, and employee obeys
- Employer must profit or fail; thus, employers face pressure to cheapen and intensify labor as one means to increase profitability
- Employers interests lie in maximizing profits, while workers’ interests lie in maximizing wages and controlling conditions of work
