Managing & Coordinating the HR Function-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Give examples of the main Organisational Objectives that the HR function is responsible for delivering and briefly explain how these have evolved/are evolving in contemporary organisations. 2.Give a brief summary of two different ways HR Objectives can be delivered in Organisations. (AC 2.1) 3.Give a short explanation of at least two major theories of Change Management. 4.Your CEO has asked for a report on the contribution of the HR function to the Business. In preparation for the report, give a brief summary of the criteria and methods you would use to evaluate the HR function's contribution. 5.In consultation with your tutor, select an article that Identifies and evaluates research evidence linking HR Practices with positive Organisational outcomes. Answers: 1.For the contemporary business organizations, human resource management is one of the key aspects to be considered in order to enhance their productivity and effectiveness. There are various organizational objectives for the human resource management in the current business scenario (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). One of the key objectives of human resource management is to driving and enhancing organizational productivity. Human resource functionaries have the responsibilities of defining the clear and precise organizational goals and aim for the employees. Stating out clear goals will help the employees to have the fair idea about the goals and objectives that they have to accomplish in the organization. Thus, it will help them to work accordingly (Shinkle 2012). Moreover, another objective of the human resource management is to maintain the effectiveness of the organizational structure be effectively recruiting and training them. Human resource management is responsible to select ri ght employees for the right job at the right time. Thus, having the rightly expertise employees for the right job will help the organization to have more effective and efficient workforce. In addition training being given by the human resource functionaries also helps the existing employees to enhance their expertise and skills according to the current market and business requirement (Chinomona 2013). Another key organizational objective is the creation and maintaining of coordination and understanding among the departments in the organization. For the current business scenario, coordination among the departments is required and importance to have the end products or services according to the requirement of the customers. Thus, human resource management is responsible for the effective coordination of the all the departments in the organizations by effectively allocating resources and training their employees (Bouckaert, Peters and Verhoest 2016). Moreover, various activities are being initiated by the human resource management in the organization in order to increase the mutual cooperation and understanding among the departments. Another objective of human resource management is to enhance the job satisfaction of the employees. Various initiatives being taken by the human resource managers such as initiation of the employee welfare activities along with providing and skill develo pment training and different types of job enrichment will help the employees to be more equipped and more motivated in their workplace (Gunaseelan and Ollukkaran 2012). However, for the contemporary business organizations, the definitions for human resource management are rapidly evolving. This is due to the reason that, contemporary business organizations are operating in different and diverse sectors and competing with several competitors. Thus, definition and organizational objectives for the contemporary business organizations are different and diverse. For instance, the importance of training being discussed earlier is different for different organizations (Ford 2014). A few years ago, the key motive to provide training to the employees is to train them in accomplishing the particular job. However, the definition of the training from being just providing assistance for the employees have been evolved to one of the key factors of enhancing the motivation of the employees (Lazaroiu 2015). For the contemporary business organizations, training helps them to equip the employees in dealing with the organizational challenge. Moreover, for the employee s in the contemporary business organizations, employees have to be trained with different set of skills and expertise, which are also to be enhanced by the use of the training. In the human resource management, recruitment and selection of the employees refers to the selection of the right employees for the right job. However, in the contemporary business organizations, recruitment depends on various different and diversified aspects such as the different needs in different departments (Bryson, James and Keep 2013). Accordingly the human resource managers have to select the employees. Moreover, in the current business scenario, human resource managers have more options of having talent pool such as having the option of online job portals. At one point of time, the key objective of the human resource managers is to maintain the human resource in the organization. On the other hand, in the contemporary business organizations, human resource managers not only will manage the human resources, but also they have to look after the effectiveness of the employees and accordingly they have to initiate various initiatives (Bratton and Gold 2012). As discussed earlier, human resource management plays an important role in enhancing the effectiveness and productivity of the employees as well as other stakeholders, however, the key objectives of the human resource management will only be achieved if it is being managed ethically and professionally. This is due to the reason that, the key concept of the human resource management stands on the ethical principles (Crane and Matten 2016). As discussed earlier, human resource management deals with the employees and thus initiation of the ethical principles in managing human resources will help the organization to instill the ethics among the employees. Moreover, following of ethics and professional code of conduct is important in the human resource management due to the reason that, human resources functionaries should have equal and neutral view on all the organizational departments. Otherwise, employees from all the departments will not have the equal opportunity of having training and human resource activities. The more ethical principles and professionalism will be followed by the human resource managers, the more will be the effectiveness of the employees (Shahid and Azhar 2013). This is due to the fact that, the employees will possess those skills, which will be provided to them. Any types of injustice with the employees will have negative impact on the entire workforce. Thus, it can be concluded that the policies and procedures in initiation of the human resource management should be ethically correct and should be implemented in professional way. 2.The objectives of human resource management can delivered in the organization in different ways. The followings sections will discuss about the different ways of how the objectives of human resource management can be delivered. One of the effective models is the traditional model of human resources. According to this model, the human resource service can be delivered to the employees with having a separate human resource department in the organization (Beardwell and Thompson 2014). This organization will look after the management of the human resources in every department in the organization. On the other hand, another model of human resource service delivery is the Ulrichs three leg model (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam 2014). Service of human resource can be delivered in different ways such as outsourcing, off shoring and in house. Outsourcing refers to the involvement of third party consulting firms in delivering the human resource service in the organization. Involvement of the consulting firm will help the organizations to have the expertise service related to the management of the human resources (Doellgast and Gospel 2013). Moreover, involvement of the human resources will also help the organization to reduce the cost involved in managing the employees in the organization along with having to take fewer responsibilities. Another effective option of delivering of human resource service in the organization is having the in house human resource managers in the organizations (Tang and Tang 2012). In this case, business organizations maintain the human resource by them. Employees in this department are being selected by the organization. They look after the service delivery of the human resources in the organization. In this case, the key advantages being gained by the organizations are the perfect alignment of the policies of human resources with the organizational objectives. Moreover, the coordination between the employees and the human resources functionaries will also be more in this case. The policies and approaches of human resource management vary with the change in size and operating sectors of the organizations. This is due to the reason that organizations from different sectors and having different size are having diverse and different requirement regarding their management of human resources (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016). In addition, the human resources approaches of large and small firms are different due to the different in their workplace requirement and relevant legislations. In the case of the large organizations, the key objectives of human resource includes effectively and strategic alignment of the human resource management with that of the organizational objectives. Moreover, in the case of the large organizations, the human resource managers have to maintain different and diversified organizational requirement and thus the one to one connectivity between the human resource functionaries and the employees may not be possible (Arnellos, Moreno and Ruiz-Mirazo 2014). On the other hand, in the case of the small organizations, the key objectives of human resources are to enhance the productivity of the employees. In this case, human resources managers have to maintain less diversified criterions and they have to mainly concentrate on the productivity of the employees as well as for the entire organization. Moreover, in the case of the small organizations, the human resource functionaries have to also concentrate on generating of innovative ideas in the organizations. This is due to the reason that, in the current business scenario, small organizations have to rely on the innovations and thus, it is the added responsibility of the human resource functionaries to encourage the employees in enhancing their innovative ideas along with maintaining the effective working environment in the organization. On the other, the objectives and goals of the human resource functionaries also vary in case of private and public sectors. In the case of the private sector, the key objective of the human resource department is to enhance the productivity of the employees due to maximize the profitability of the organization (Nda and Fard 2013). This is due to the reason that, private organizations are concerned with profit maximization and thus the key responsibility of the human resource functionaries is to increase the productivity of the employees. Moreover, in the case of private organization, there is more chance of implementing the Ulrich model due to the fact that, private organization is more concerned with the reduction in the internal cost. Thus, it is more probable for the human resource in the private organizations to opt for off shoring or outsourcing the human resource functionaries in order to reduce cost. In the case of the public organizations, the key objective of human resource management is to enhance the quality of the customer service (Jasmand, Blazevic and de Ruyter 2012). This is due to the reason that, in the public organizations, human resource managers have to look after the quality of the service quality due to the fact it will provide competitive advantages in the market. Accordingly, they will have to provide training and other employee welfare activities to equip the employees in providing the effective customer service to the customers. 3.There are various theories being stated by different authors in relation to the change management in the organization. One of the key change theories is the Kurt Lewins model of change. According to this theory, there are three main steps that should be considered by the organizations in implementing the change. The first process is the un-freezing process. In this process, the senior management has to identify the gaps in the existing organizational systems and ware those to the employees (Shirey 2013). Moreover, the employees should be made aware about the limitations of the existing systems and the need and benefits of change management. The next process is the implementation of the change. In this step, the senior management has to implement the change in the organization according to the requirement. The last step is the refreezing. In this step, the employees should be made comfortable and convenient in the new systems and aligning the employees and other infrastructure in th e organization according to the implemented changes (Shirey 2013). Another theory related to the change management is the McKinseys 7S model. This model states seven steps for the organizations to have effective management and implementation of the change process (Singh 2013). This model states more holistic approach and covers more elements for the organizations to have effective implementation of change process. The steps in this model include shared value, strategy, structure, systems, style and the skills. Thus, initiation of this model will help the organization to align their internal infrastructure along in the line of change process. However, Lewins model of change management is the most used and popular model for implementing the change in the organizations. This is due to the reason that, Lewins model helps the organization to initiate the change process effectively and in sequential manner. As discussed earlier, the first process or step in this model is the unfreezing model. In the case of the initiation of the change process, the first step for the organization is to identify and determine the issues in the existing systems (Shirey 2013). This is due to the reason that, the gap identified in the existing systems will be the key areas, which need to be improved by implementing changes in the organization. Moreover, the gap identified will also be helpful and beneficial for the organizations in reducing the resistance of the employees. Thus, determination of the gaps or issues is important for the organization to implement the change. In addition, in the process of change management, chances of having resistan ce from the side of the employees are high (Bateh, Castaneda and Farah 2013). This is due to the reason that, employees will have the fear that the implementation of the change process will may have adverse impact on them. Thus, it is the responsibility of the senior management to overcome the resistance from the employees. They have to make the employees aware about the existing gaps in the organizations and how the change to be implemented in the organization will overcome these issues. The next process is the implementation of the change. This step will involve the implementation of the change in the organization after the initial resistance can be overcome. The change process is being implemented and the associated stakeholders start to identify the changes. This process is important due to the reason that, the effectiveness of the change process depends on how well the change is being aligned with the organizational infrastructure (Nijssen and Paauwe 2012). The last step is the refreezing. In this step, the organizations are being taken back to its existing form. Due to the emergence of the change process in the organization, instability is being aroused in the organization with the employees feel inconvenient to get accustomed with the new process. Thus, in this step, the organizational culture, structure and procedures are being made stable and all the associated stakeholders will feel comfortable and convenient in the new culture. However, the effectiveness of the change process being implemented in the organization should be periodically evaluated by the human resource managers. This is due to the fact that, change is being implemented in the organization to meet the latest criterions in the market and business scenario. Thus, due to the fact that, the current market scenario is rapidly changing, it is important that the change process should be periodically evaluated in order to identify any required changes. 4.There are various criterions and methods to be used in evaluation of the human resource function in the business. As already discussed, the key motive of the human resource function is to enhance the productivity of the employees along with maintaining the effective working environment in the organization (Murrell 2012). Thus, one of the key criterions to evaluate the effectiveness of the human resource function is the productivity of the employees. In the evaluation process, it is to be seen that to what extent the productivity of the employees get increased with the initiation of the human resource management. Another criterion to be accessed is the motivational level of the employees. Human resource management is being initiated to enhance the motivational level of the employees in the workplace. Thus, the high morale of the employees will be another key criterion to evaluate the human resource function in the organization. Another criterion that is required in evaluating the hu man resource function in the organization is the generation of the innovative ideas from the employees (Hoyrup et al. 2012). Human resource functionaries operate in the organizations especially the small organizations in order to generate innovative ideas. Thus, the more will be the generation of the innovative ideas in the organizations, the more will be the effectiveness of the human resource management. In addition to the various criterions regarding the evaluation of the human resource management, there are some other methods that are being used in evaluating the human resources in the organization. One of the methods is the commitment. It refers to the fact that employees are working effectively in the organization and their individual skills and expertise, which helps in gaining competitive advantages for the organization. Thus, evaluation of the commitment of the employees in their organization will help to determine the effectiveness of the human resource in the organization. The next method for evaluation is the determining the competency level of the employees. Competency refers to the skills and abilities of the employees in accomplishing their task (Baran and Klos 2014). Thus, the more effective will be the process of recruitment and selection of the new employees, the more will be the effectiveness of the human resource management in the organization. The next method in evaluating the contribution of human resources in the organization is the congruency. An organization will get success if the relationship between the employees and the senior management is positive and effective. Thus, in this case, the objective of the human resource management is to enhance the organizational relationship between the internal stakeholders. Congruency refers to the effective relationship between the employees and the senior management and sharing similar vision in the organization (Spanjol, Tam and Tam 2015). Thus, evaluation of the congruency in the organization will help to evaluate the contribution of human resource in the organization. The last method of evaluation is the bench marking. It refers to the concept of comparing the data and information of the employees with that of the organization having effective human resource management. Thus, the more effective will be the determination of the competitors information, the more effective will be the evaluation process of the human resource function. 5.There are various articles being stated by various authors regarding the impact of human resource management on the organization. However, an article being stated by Kehoe and Wright (2013), regarding the impact of the human resource management on the effectiveness and productivity of the employees. This article concludes that, involving of human resource management will help the organization to have motivated and equipped employees. According to the authors, initiation of human resource management will help the organization to have positive impact on the attitude and behavior of the employees. According to the authors, human resource management includes the providence of training and skill development programs for the employees. Thus, providence of training to the employees will help them to train and equip in facing the organizational challenges. Moreover, training will also help the employees to get accustomed with the change in the market and business scenario. This will eventu ally help them to have positive attitude in their workplace due to the fact that, they are well equipped to face the organizational challenges. Moreover, the authors also stated that, involvement of human resource management will help in maintaining the diversity in the workforce. Thus, for the multinational organizations such as Unilever, initiation of human resource management will help to effectively manage the diversified employees from different regions around the world. The article stated above is convincing due to the fact that, it covers all the related aspects of impacts of human resource management. Moreover, according to the authors, the survey for this article is being done on an realistic manufacturing unit. Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, investment in the human resource management and development in the organization will have positive impact on the effectiveness and productivity. The more investment will be in the human resource development by the organization, the more equipped and updated will be the organizational mechanism to manage the employees. Thus, having effective and well trained employees in the organization will help in gaining competitive advantages in the market. Moreover, effective management of human capital will also help the organization to reduce the probability of employee related issues, due to the high level of engagement and job involvement of the employees in their workplace. This will also help the organization in reducing the employee turnover rate. Thus, it can be concluded that, more investment in managing the human capital will be beneficial for the business organizations due to the reason that, it will help them to enhance the p roductivity and effectiveness of the employees. 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