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MODULE 1 on Introduction to Human Resource Management

Descriptive: Intro to Human Resource Management with Labor Laws Code: MN 1 Units: 3 units
Instructor: Mr. Jimbo J. Antipolo, LPT, MEd Semester: First Semester AY 2021-2022
Date Given: September 13, 2021 | Monday Deadline: September 17, 2021 | Friday @ 5:00 PM

Learning Objectives: After studying this module, you will be able to

❖ Understand the basic concepts of human resource management (HRM).
❖ Explain what human resource management is and how it relates to the management process.
❖ Provide an overview of functions of HRM.
❖ Describe how the major roles of HR management are being transformed.
❖ Explain the role of HRM in the present millennium.

Introduction .
Human beings are social beings and hardly ever live and work in isolation. We always plan, develop and manage
our relations both consciously and unconsciously. The relations are the outcome of our actions and depend to a
great extent upon our ability to manage our actions. From childhood each and every individual acquire
knowledge and experience on understanding others and how to behave in each and every situations in life. Later
we carry forward this learning and understanding in carrying and managing relations at our workplace. The
whole context of Human Resource Management revolves around this core matter of managing relations at work
place.

Since mid 1980’s Human Resource Management (HRM) has gained acceptance in both academic and
commercial circle. HRM is a multidisciplinary organizational function that draws theories and ideas from
various fields such as management, psychology, sociology and economics.

There is no best way to manage people and no manager has formulated how people can be managed effectively,
because people are complex beings with complex needs. Effective HRM depends very much on the causes and
conditions that an organizational setting would provide. Any Organization has three basic components, People,
Purpose, and Structure.

In 1994, a noted leader in the human resources (HR) field made the following observation: Yesterday, the
company with the access most to the capital or the latest technology had the best competitive advantage; Today,
companies that offer products with the highest quality are the ones with a leg up on the competition; But the
only thing that will uphold a company’s advantage tomorrow is the caliber of people in the organization.

That predicted future is today’s reality. Most managers in public- and private sector firms of all sizes would
agree that people truly are the organization’s most important asset. Having competent staff on the payroll does
not guarantee that a firm’s human resources will be a source of competitive advantage. However in order to
remain competitive, to grow, and diversify an organization must ensure that its employees are qualified, placed
in appropriate positions, properly trained, managed effectively, and committed to the firm’s success. The goal
of HRM is to maximize employees’ contributions in order to achieve optimal productivity and effectiveness,
while simultaneously attaining individual objectives (such as having a challenging job and obtaining
recognition), and societal objectives (such as legal compliance and demonstrating social responsibility).

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Opening Case .
On October 3, 2003, Anant Dalvi and Akhtar Khan, who worked as contract workers in Tata Electric Company
until they were laid off in 1996, doused themselves with kerosene and set themselves ablaze even as their co-
workers protested before the company’s offices. While Dalvi died on the spot, Khan died a few days later.

The Tata Electric Company said they were no longer on their payroll and were not permanent workers.
Employees union had taken up their case and filled petition in the Labour Court before their contracts were
terminated. The court directed the company not to terminate their services without following the due process of
law. Despite this their services were terminated on June 30, 1996.

The company union promised the workers that they would renegotiate. Yet on the night before they killed
themselves when Khan and Dalvi spoke to the union leader Shinde, they were told that nothing more could be
done for them. It is this that led them to take their lives. Dalvi has been in service as a peon for17 years and
Khan had been employed for 19 years. But their services were not regularized. Such workers draw salary much
less than the permanent employees.

This is an example of the problem that comes under the purview of Human Resource Management – the main
concept elaborated in this module.

What is Human Resource Management? .

HRM is the study of activities regarding people working in an organization. It is a managerial function that
tries to match an organization’s needs to the skills and abilities of its employees.

Definitions of HRM
Human resources management (HRM) is a management function concerned with hiring, motivating and
maintaining people in an organization. It focuses on people in organizations. Human resource management is
designing management systems to ensure that human talent is used effectively and efficiently to accomplish
organizational goals.

HRM is the personnel function which is concerned with procurement, development, compensation, integration
and maintenance of the personnel of an organization for the purpose of contributing towards the
accomplishments of the organization’s objectives. Therefore, personnel management is the planning,
organizing, directing, and controlling of the performance of those operative functions (Edward B. Philippo).

According to the Invancevich and Glueck, “HRM is concerned with the most effective use of people to
achieve organizational and individual goals. It is the way of managing people at work, so that they give their
best to the organization”.

According to Dessler (2008) the policies and practices involved in carrying out the “people” or human resource
aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising comprises
of HRM.

Generally HRM refers to the management of people in organizations. It comprises of the activities, policies, and
practices involved in obtaining, developing, utilizing, evaluating, maintaining, and retaining the appropriate
number and skill mix of employees to accomplish the organization’s objectives. The goal of HRM is to
maximize employees’ contributions in order to achieve optimal productivity and effectiveness, while

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simultaneously attaining individual objectives (such as having a challenging job and obtaining recognition), and
societal objectives (such as legal compliance and demonstrating social responsibility).

In short Human Resource Management (HRM) can be defined as the art of procuring, developing and
maintaining competent workforce to achieve the goals of an organization in an effective and efficient manner.

Nature of HRM .
HRM is a management function that helps manager’s to recruit, select, train and develop members for an
organization. HRM is concerned with people’s dimension in organizations.

The following constitute the core of HRM

1. HRM Involves the Application of Management Functions and Principles. The functions and
principles are applied to acquiring, developing, maintaining and providing remuneration to employees
in organization.
2. Decision Relating to Employees must be Integrated. Decisions on different aspects of employees must
be consistent with other human resource (HR) decisions.
3. Decisions Made Influence the Effectiveness of an Organization. Effectiveness of an organization will
result in betterment of services to customers in the form of high quality products supplied at reasonable
costs.
4. HRM Functions are not Confined to Business Establishments Only but applicable to nonbusiness
organizations such as education, health care, recreation and like.

HRM refers to a set of programmes, functions and activities designed and carried out in order to maximize both
employee as well as organizational effectiveness.

Scope of HRM .
The scope of HRM is indeed vast. All major activities in the working life of a worker – from the time of his or
her entry into an organization until he or she leaves the organizations comes under the purview of HRM. The
major HRM activities include HR planning, job analysis, job design, employee hiring, employee and executive
remuneration, employee motivation, employee maintenance, industrial relations and prospects of HRM.

The scope of Human Resources Management extends to:

• All the decisions, strategies, factors, principles, operations, practices, functions, activities and methods
related to the management of people as employees in any type of organization.
• All the dimensions related to people in their employment relationships, and all the dynamics that flow
from it.

Please see the graphic organizer shown on the next page.

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The scope of HRM is really vast. All major activities n the working life of a worker – from the time of his or
her entry into an organization until he or she leaves it comes under the purview of HRM. American Society for
Training and Development (ASTD) conducted fairly an exhaustive study in this field and identified nine broad
areas of activities of HRM.

These are given below:

• Human Resource Planning
• Design of the Organization and Job
• Selection and Staffing
• Training and Development
• Organizational Development
• Compensation and Benefits
• Employee Assistance
• Union/Labour Relations
• Personnel Research and Information System

a) Human Resource Planning: The objective of HR Planning is to ensure that the organization has the right
types of persons at the right time at the right place. It prepares human resources inventory with a view to assess
present and future needs, availability and possible shortages in human resource. Thereupon, HR Planning

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forecast demand and supplies and identify sources of selection. HR Planning develops strategies both long-term
and short-term, to meet the man-power requirement.

b) Design of Organization and Job: This is the task of laying down organization structure, authority,
relationship and responsibilities. This will also mean definition of work contents for each position in the
organization. This is done by “job description”. Another important step is “Job specification”. Job specification
identifies the attributes of persons who will be most suitable for each job which is defined by job description.

c) Selection and Staffing: This is the process of recruitment and selection of staff. This involves matching
people and their expectations with which the job specifications and career path available within the organization.

d) Training and Development: This involves an organized attempt to find out training needs of the individuals
to meet the knowledge and skill which is needed not only to perform current job but also to fulfil the future
needs of the organization.

e) Organizational Development: This is an important aspect whereby “Synergetic effect” is generated in an

organization i.e. healthy interpersonal and inter-group relationship within the organization.

f) Compensation and Benefits: This is the area of wages and salaries administration where wages and
compensations are fixed scientifically to meet fairness and equity criteria. In addition labour welfare measures
are involved which include benefits and services.

g) Employee Assistance: Each employee is unique in character, personality, expectation and temperament. By
and large each one of them faces problems everyday. Some are personal some are official. In their case he or
she remains worried. Such worries must be removed to make him or her more productive and happy.

h) Union-Labour Relations: Healthy Industrial and Labour relations are very important for enhancing peace
and productivity in an organization. This is one of the areas of HRM.

i) Personnel Research and Information System: Knowledge on behavioral science and industrial psychology
throws better insight into the workers expectations, aspirations and behaviour. Advancement of technology of
product and production methods have created working environment which are much different from the past.
Globalization of economy has increased competition many fold. Science of ergonomics gives better ideas of
doing a work more conveniently by an employee. Thus, continuous research in HR areas is an unavoidable
requirement. It must also take special care for improving exchange of information through effective
communication systems on a continuous basis especially on moral and motivation.

HRM is a broad concept; personnel management (PM) and Human resource development (HRD) are a part of
HRM.

Objectives of HRM .
The primary objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of competent and willing workforce to an
organization. The specific objectives include the following:

1) Human capital : assisting the organization in obtaining the right number and types of employees to fulfill
its strategic and operational goals
2) Developing organizational climate: helping to create a climate in which employees are encouraged to
develop and utilize their skills to the fullest and to employ the skills and abilities of the workforce
efficiently

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3) Helping to maintain performance standards and increase productivity through effective job design;
providing adequate orientation, training and development; providing performance-related feedback; and
ensuring effective two-way communication.
4) Helping to establish and maintain a harmonious employer/employee relationship
5) Helping to create and maintain a safe and healthy work environment
6) Developing programs to meet the economic, psychological, and social needs of the employees and
helping the organization to retain the productive employees
7) Ensuring that the organization is in compliance with provincial/territorial and federal laws affecting the
workplace (such as human rights, employment equity, occupational health and safety, employment
standards, and labour relations legislation). To help the organization to reach its goals
8) To provide organization with well-trained and well-motivated employees
9) To increase the employees satisfaction and self-actualization
10) To develop and maintain the quality of work life
11) To communicate HR policies to all employees.
12) To help maintain ethical polices and behavior.

The above stated HRM objectives can be summarized under four specific objectives: societal, organizational,
and functional and personnel.

1) Societal Objectives: seek to ensure that the organization becomes socially responsible to the needs and
challenges of the society while minimizing the negative impact of such demands upon the organization.
The failure of the organizations to use their resources for the society’s benefit in ethical ways may lead
to restriction.
2) Organizational Objectives: it recognizes the role of HRM in bringing about organizational
effectiveness. It makes sure that HRM is not a standalone department, but rather a means to assist the
organization with its primary objectives. The HR department exists to serve the rest of the organization.

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3) Functional Objectives: is to maintain the department’s contribution at a level appropriate to the

organization’s needs. Human resources are to be adjusted to suit the organization’s demands. The
department’s value should not become too expensive at the cost of the organization it serves.
4) Personnel Objectives: it is to assist employees in achieving their personal goals, at least as far as these
goals enhance the individual’s contribution to the organization. Personal objectives of employees must
be met if they are to be maintained, retained and motivated. Otherwise employee performance and
satisfaction may decline giving rise to employee turnover.

Functions of HRM .
Human Resources management has an important role to play in equipping organizations to meet the challenges
of an expanding and increasingly competitive sector. Increase in staff numbers, contractual diversification and
changes in demographic profile which compel the HR managers to reconfigure the role and significance of
human resources management. The functions are responsive to current staffing needs, but can be proactive in
reshaping organizational objectives. All the functions of HRM are correlated with the core objectives of HRM
(Table 1.1). For example personal objectives is sought to be realized through functions like remuneration,
assessment etc.

See the graphical presentation of the functions of HRM on the next page.

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Figure 1.3 Functions of HRM

HR management can be thought of as seven interlinked functions taking place within organizations, as depicted
in Figure 1.3 Additionally, external forces—legal, economic, technological, global, environmental,
cultural/geographic, political, and social—significantly affect how HR functions are designed, managed, and
changed. The functions can be grouped as follows:

1) Strategic HR Management: As a part of maintaining organizational competitiveness, strategic

planning for HR effectiveness can be increased through the use of HR metrics and HR technology.
Human resource planning (HRP) function determine the number and type of employees needed to
accomplish organizational goals. HRP includes creating venture teams with a balanced skill-mix,
recruiting the right people, and voluntary team assignment. This function analyzes and determines
personnel needs in order to create effective innovation teams. The basic HRP strategy is staffing and
employee development.
2) Equal Employment Opportunity: Compliance with equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws and
regulations affects all other HR activities.
3) Staffing: The aim of staffing is to provide a sufficient supply of qualified individuals to fill jobs in an
organization. Job analysis, recruitment and selection are the main functions under staffing.

Workers job design and job analysis laid the foundation for staffing by identifying what diverse people
do in their jobs and how they are affected by them.

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Job analysis is the process of describing the nature of a job and specifying the human requirements such
as knowledge, skills, and experience needed to perform the job. The end result of job analysis is job
description. Job description spells out work duties and activities of employees.

Through HR planning, managers anticipate the future supply of and demand for employees and the
nature of workforce issues, including the retention of employees. So HRP precedes the actual selection
of people for organization. These factors are used when recruiting applicants for job openings. The
selection process is concerned with choosing qualified individuals to fill those jobs. In the selection
function, the most qualified applicants are selected for hiring from among the applicants based on the
extent to which their abilities and skills are matching with the job.

4) Talent Management and Development: Beginning with the orientation of new employees, talent
management and development includes different types of training. Orientation is the first step towards
helping a new employee to adjust himself to the new job and the employer. It is a method to acquaint
new employees with particular aspects of their new job, including pay and benefit programmes, working
hours and company rules and expectations.

Training and Development programs provide useful means of assuring that the employees are capable
of performing their jobs at acceptable levels and also more than that. All the organizations provide
training for new and in experienced employee. In addition, organization often provide both on the job
and off the job training programmes for those employees whose jobs are undergoing change.

Likewise, HR development and succession planning of employees and managers is necessary to prepare
for future challenges. Career planning has developed as result of the desire of many employees to grow
in their jobs and to advance in their career. Career planning activities include assessing an individual
employee’s potential for growth and advancement in the organization.

Performance appraisal includes encouraging risk taking, demanding innovation, generating or adopting
new tasks, peer evaluation, frequent evaluations, and auditing innovation processes.

This function monitors employee performance to ensure that it is at acceptable levels. This strategy
appraises individual and team performance so that there is a link between individual innovativeness and
company profitability. Which tasks should be appraised and who should assess employees’ performance
are also taken into account.

5) Total Rewards: Compensation in the form of pay, incentives and benefits are the rewards given to the
employees for performing organizational work. Compensation management is the method for
determining how much employees should be paid for performing certain jobs. Compensation affects
staffing in that people are generally attracted to organizations offering a higher level of pay in exchange
for the work performed. To be competitive, employers develop and refine their basic compensation
systems and may use variable pay programs such as incentive rewards, promotion from within the team,
recognition rewards, balancing team and individual rewards etc. This function uses rewards to motivate
personnel to achieve an organization’s goals of productivity, innovation and profitability. Compensation
is also related to employee development in that it provides an important incentive in motivating
employees to higher levels of job performance to higher paying jobs in the organization.

Benefits are another form of compensation to employees other than direct pay for the work performed.
Benefits include both legally required items and those offered at employer’s discretion. Benefits are
primarily related to the area of employee maintenance as they provide for many basic employee needs.

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6) Risk Management and Worker Protection: HRM addresses various workplace risks to ensure
protection of workers by meeting legal requirements and being more responsive to concerns for
workplace health and safety along with disaster and recovery planning.

7) Employee and Labor Relations: The relationship between managers and their employees must be
handled legally and effectively. Employer and employee rights must be addressed. It is important to
develop, communicate, and update HR policies and procedures so that managers and employees alike
know what is expected. In some organizations, union/management relations must be addressed as well.
The term labour relation refers to the interaction with employees who are represented by a trade union.
Unions are organization of employees who join together to obtain more voice in decisions affecting
wages, benefits, working conditions and other aspects of employment. With regard to labour relations
the major function of HR personnel includes negotiating with the unions regarding wages, service
conditions and resolving disputes and grievances.

Role of HRM .
The role of HRM is to plan, develop and administer policies and programs designed to make optimum use of
an organizations human resources. It is that part of management which is concerned with the people at work
and with their relationship within enterprises. Its objectives are: (a) effective utilization of human resources, (b)
desirable working relationships among all members of the organizations, and (c) maximum individual
development. Human resources function as primarily administrative and professional. HR staff focused on
administering benefits and other payroll and operational functions and didn’t think of themselves as playing a
part in the firm’s overall strategy.

HR professionals have an all encompassing role. They are required to have a thorough knowledge of the
organization and its intricacies and complexities. The ultimate goal of every HR person should be to develop a
linkage between the employee and organization because employee’s commitment to the organization is crucial.

The first and foremost role of HR personnel is to impart continuous education to the employees about the
changes and challenges facing the country in general and their organization in particular. The employees should
know about the balance sheet of the company, sales progress, and diversification of plans, share price
movements, turnover and other details about the company. The HR professionals should impart such knowledge
to all employees through small booklets, video films and lectures.

The primary responsibilities of Human Resource managers are:

• To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies.
• To act as an internal change agent and consultant
• To initiate change and act as an expert and facilitator
• To actively involve in company’s strategy formulation
• To keep communication line open between the HRD function and individuals and groups both within
and outside the organization
• To identify and evolve HRD strategies in consonance with overall business strategy.
• To facilitate the development of various organizational teams and their working relationship with other
teams and individuals.
• To try and relate people and work so that the organization objectives are achieved efficiently and
effectively.
• To diagnose problems and determine appropriate solution particularly in the human resource areas.
• To provide co-ordination and support services for the delivery of HRD programmes and services

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• To evaluate the impact of an HRD intervention or to conduct research so as to identify, develop or test
how HRD In general has improved individual and organizational performance.

Different management gurus have deliberated different roles for the HR manager based on the major
responsibilities that they full fill in the organization. Few of the commonly accepted models are enumerated
below.

Pat Mc Lagan has suggested nine roles that are played by HR practitioners
1. To bring the issues and trends concerning an organization’s external and internal people to the attention
of strategic decision makers and to recommend long term strategies to support organizational excellence
and endurance.
2. To design and prepare HR systems and actions for implementation so that they can produce maximum
impact on organizational performance and development.
3. To facilitate the development and implementation of strategies for transforming one’s own organization
by pursuing values and visions.
4. To create a positive relationship with the customer’s by providing them with the best services; to utilize
the resources to the maximum and to create commitment among the people who help the organization
to meet the customers needs whether directly connected or indirectly connected to the organization.
5. To identify the learning needs hence to design and develop structured learning programmes and materials
to help accelerate learning for individuals and groups.
6. To enable the individuals and groups to work in new situations and to expend and change their views so
that people in power move from authoritarian to participative models of leadership.
7. To help employees to assess their competencies, values and goals so that they can identify, plan and
implement development plans.
8. He also assists the individual employee to add values in the workplace and to focus on the interventions
and interpersonal skills for helping people change and sustain change.
9. He assesses the HRD practices and programmes and their impact and to communicate results so that the
organization and its people accelerate their change and development.

According to Dave Ulrich HR play’s four key roles.

1. Strategic Partner Role-turning strategy into results by building organizations that create value;
2. Change Agent Role- making change happen, and in particular, help it happen fast
3. Employees Champion Role—managing the talent or the intellectual capital within a firm
4. Administrative Role—trying to get things to happen better, faster and cheaper.

The role HR in organizations has undergone an extensive change and many organizations have gradually
oriented themselves from the traditional personnel management to a human resources management approach.
The basic approach of HRM is to perceive the organization as a whole. Its emphasis is not only on production
and productivity but also on the quality of life. It seeks to achieve the paramount development of human
resources and the utmost possible socio-economic development.

Current Classification of HR roles

According to R.L Mathis and J. H. Jackson (2010) several roles can be fulfilled by HR management. The nature
and extent of these roles depend on both what upper management wants HR management to do and what
competencies the HR staff have demonstrated. Three roles are typically identified for HR. The focus of each of
them, as shown in Figure 1.is elaborated on the next page:

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Figure 1.4 : Current Classification of HR roles

1. Administrative Role of HR
The administrative role of HR management has been heavily oriented to administration and recordkeeping
including essential legal paperwork and policy implementation. Major changes have happened in the
administrative role of HR during the recent years. Two major shifts driving the transformation of the
administrative role are: Greater use of technology and Outsourcing.

Technology has been widely used to improve the administrative efficiency of HR and the responsiveness of HR
to employees and managers, more HR functions are becoming available electronically or are being done on the
Internet using Web-based technology. Technology is being used in most HR activities, from employment
applications and employee benefits enrollments to e-learning using Internet-based resources.

Increasingly, many HR administrative functions are being outsourced to vendors. This outsourcing of HR
administrative activities has grown dramatically in HR areas such as employee assistance (counseling),
retirement planning, benefits administration, payroll services, and outplacement services.

2. Operational and Employee Advocate Role for HR

HR managers manage most HR activities in line with the strategies and operations that have been identified by
management and serves as employee “champion” for employee issues and concerns.

HR often has been viewed as the “employee advocate” in organizations. They act as the voice for employee
concerns, and spend considerable time on HR “crisis management,” dealing with employee problems that are
both work-related and not work-related. Employee advocacy helps to ensure fair and equitable treatment for
employees regardless of personal background or circumstances.

Sometimes the HR’s advocate role may create conflict with operating managers. However, without the HR
advocate role, employers could face even more lawsuits and regulatory complaints than they do now.

The operational role requires HR professionals to cooperate with various departmental and operating managers
and supervisors in order to identify and implement needed programs and policies in the organization.
Operational activities are tactical in nature. Compliance with equal employment opportunity and other laws is
ensured, employment applications are processed, current openings are filled through interviews, supervisors are
trained, safety problems are resolved, and wage and benefit questions are answered. For carrying out these
activities HR manager matches HR activities with the strategies of the organization.

3. Strategic Role for HR

The administrative role traditionally has been the dominant role for HR. However, as Figure 1.4 indicates that
a broader transformation in HR is needed so that significantly less HR time and fewer HR staffs are used just
for clerical work.

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Differences between the operational and strategic roles exist in a number of HR areas. The strategic HR role
means that HR professionals are proactive in addressing business realities and focusing on future business needs,
such as strategic planning, compensation strategies, the performance of HR, and measuring its results. However,
in some organizations, HR often does not play a key role in formulating the strategies for the organization as a
whole; instead it merely carries them out through HR activities.

Many executives, managers, and HR professionals are increasingly seeing the need for HR management to
become a greater strategic contributor to the “business” success of organizations. HR should be responsible for
knowing what the true cost of human capital is for an employer. For example, it may cost two times key
employees’ annual salaries to replace them if they leave. Turnover can be controlled though HR activities, and
if it is successful in saving the company money with good retention and talent management strategies, those
may be important contributions to the bottom line of organizational performance.

The role of HR as a strategic business partner is often described as “having a seat at the table,” and contributing
to the strategic directions and success of the organization. That means HR is involved in devising strategy in
addition to implementing strategy. Part of HR’s contribution is to have financial expertise and to produce
financial results, not just to boost employee morale or administrative efficiencies. Therefore, a significant
concern for chief financial officers (CFOs) is whether HR executives are equipped to help them to plan and
meet financial requirements.

However, even though this strategic role of HR is recognized, many organizations still need to make significant
progress toward fulfilling it. Some examples of areas where strategic contributions can be made by HR are:
• Evaluating mergers and acquisitions for organizational “compatibility,” structural changes, and staffing
needs
• Conducting workforce planning to anticipate the retirement of employees at all levels and identify
workforce expansion in organizational strategic plans
• Leading site selection efforts for new facilities or transferring operations to international outsourcing
locations based on workforce needs
• Instituting HR management systems to reduce administrative time, equipment, and staff by using HR
technology
• Working with executives to develop a revised sales compensation and incentives plan as new products

It is the era when for the competitive triumph of the organization there is a need to involve HRM significantly
in an integrated manner, which demands such capabilities from the HR specialists.

The role of HR shifted from a facilitator to a functional peer with competencies in other functions, and is
acknowledged as an equal partner by others. The HR is motivated to contribute to organizational objectives of
profitability and customer satisfaction, and is seen as a vehicle for realization of quality development. The
department has a responsibility for monitoring employee satisfaction, since it is seen as substitute to customer
satisfaction.

According to McKinsey’s 7-S framework model HR plays the role of a catalyst for the organization. According
to this framework, effective organizational change is a complex relationship between seven S’s. HRM is a total
matching process between the three Hard S’s (Strategy, Structure and Systems) and the four Soft S’s (Style,
Staff, Skills and Super-ordinate Goals). Clearly, all the S’s have to complement each other and have to be
aligned towards a single corporate vision for the organization to be effective. It has to be realized that most of
the S’s are determined directly or indirectly by the way Human Resources are managed, and therefore, HRM
must be a part of the total business strategy.

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HRM in the New Millennium .

Human Resources have never been more indispensable than today. The competitive forces that we face today
will continue to face in the future demanding organizational excellence. In order to achieve this extended quality,
organization’s need to focus on learning, quality development, teamwork, and reengineering. These factors are
driven by the way organizations implement things and how employees are treated.

1. HR Can Help in Dispensing Organizational Excellence: To achieve this paradigm shift in the organization
excellence there is a need for organizations to reform the way in which work is carried out by the Human
Resource department. By designing an entirely new role and agenda that results in enriching the organization’s
value to customers, investors and employees, HR can help in delivering organizational excellence. This can be
carried out by helping line managers and senior mangers in moving planning from the conference room to the
market place and by becoming an expert in the way work is organized and executed.

HR should be a representative of the employees and should help the organization in improving its capacity for
change. HR will help the organizations in facing the competitive challenges such as globalization, profitability
through growth, technology, intellectual capital, and other competitive challenges that the companies are facing
while adjusting to uncontrollably challenging changes in business environment. The novel role of HR is to
rapidly turn strategy into action; to manage processes intelligently and efficiently; to maximize employee
contribution and commitment and to construct favorable conditions for flawless change.

2. Human Resource Should be a Strategy Partner: HR should also become a partner in strategy executions
by propelling and directing serious discussions of how the company should be organized to carry out its strategy.

Creating the conditions for this discussion involves four steps. First HR need to define an organizational
architecture by identifying the company’s way of doing business. Second, HR must be held responsible for
conducting an organizational audit. Third, HR as a strategic partner needs to identify methods for restoring the
parts of the organizational architecture that need it. Fourth and finally, HR must take stock of its own work and
set clear priorities. In their new role as administrative experts they will need to shed their traditional image and
still make sure all routine work for the company is done well.

3. HR Accountability Should be Fixed to Ensure Employee Commitment: HR must be held accountable for
ensuring that employees feel committed to the organization and contribute fully. They must take responsibility
for orienting and training line management about the importance of high employee morale and how to achieve
it. The new HR should be the voice of employees in management discussions. The new role for HR might also
involve suggesting that more teams be used on some projects or that employees be given more control over their
own work schedules.

4. The New HR Must Become a Change Agent: The new HR must become a change agent, which is building
the organization’s capacity to embrace and capitalize on change. Even though they are not primarily responsible
for executing change it is the duty of the HR manager to make sure that the organization carries out the changes
framed for implementation.

5. Improving the Quality of HR: The most important thing that managers can do to drive the new mandate for
HR is to improve the quality of the HR staff itself. Senior executives must get beyond the stereotypes of HR
professionals as incompetent support staff and unleash HR’s full potential

6. Change in Employment Practices: The balance sheet of an organization shows human resource as an
expense and not as a Capital. In the information age, it is perceived that the machines can do the work more
efficiently than most people however; technology to work is dependent on people.

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The challenges for Employment Practice in the New Millennium will require that there should be strategic
involvement of the people and labour-management partnerships as they both have to take organization
ahead.

7. Benchmarking Tool Must be Mastered by HR Professionals: HR professionals must master

benchmarking, which is a tool for continuous improvement- directing the human side associated with the
strategic path adopted by the organization. Through this, HR department will start appreciating the changes
happening within and outside the environment while expanding the knowledge about how to add value to
decision making at the highest level of the organization.

8. Aligning Human Resources to Better Meet Strategic Objectives: Too often organizations craft their
strategy in a vacuum. Some organizations don’t even include key people during strategy formulation resulting
in lacunae between the actual problems and the solutions implemented- as critical inputs are not sought from
those individuals who are supposed to implement the new strategies.

A past CEO of Sony once said that organizations have access to the same technology and the same information.
The difference between any two organizations is the “people”- the human resource. Empowering the workforce
is an essential tool for aligning human resources with the achievement of corporate objectives. It is the duty of
HR manager to hire talented human resource and to provide them with a positive environment where they will
be able to utilize their skills and potentials and to create an environment in which these individuals are
comfortable taking risks.

9. Promote From Within and Invest in Employees: Promoting employees from within sends a powerful
message that the organization’s employees are valued. New blood and fresh ideas often come from newcomers
to the organization. To avoid stagnation of the firm, new ideas and approaches are critical. Yet to improve
employee morale, promoting individuals from within the organization is essential. This communicates that the
organization values their employees and invests in their human resources.

10. Review the Recruitment and Selection Process: A key element of human resource planning is ensuring
that the supply of appropriate employees (with the right skill mix) is on board when needed. This requires a
proactive approach whereby the organization anticipates its needs well in advance. It is important to identify the
competencies being sought. That is, the criteria upon which selection decisions are to be made should be decided
in advance. A firm must identify those skill sets required by employees to be successful. Charles O’Reilly
suggests that companies should hire for attitude (perhaps even more so than technical skills). That is, the fit of
the individual with the values of the organization and the culture of the firm should also be considered when
selecting employees. This has been referred to as the person-organization-fit. It is no longer enough to simply
consider the person’s fit (and technical skill set) with the job. Part of the employee’s fit with the organization
should focus on the core values and beliefs of the organization. This will increase employees’ contributions to
the overall success of the organization if they already embrace the core values of the organization prior to their
selection

11. Communicate Mission and Vision: If employees are expected to contribute to the attainment of the
organization’s strategic objectives, they must understand what their role is. This can be achieved in part by
clearly communicating the mission and vision statements of the firm. The old adage is certainly true. If a person
does not know where he or she is going, any road will get him or her there.

The mission communicates the identity and purpose of the organization. It provides a statement of who the firm
is and what their business is. Only those employees who understand this purpose can contribute to the fullest
extent possible. The vision statement provides a picture of the future state of the firm. It should be a stretch to
attain. This keeps all the organization’s employees pulling in the same direction with a common end point. It is

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much easier to align human resources with corporate objectives when these employees are familiar with the
mission and vision of the firm.

As the mission and vision statements are articulated, organizational members begin to more closely embrace
their very meaning on an individual level. These statements provide a road map leading employees down the
road to achieve organizational objectives. Employees then identify how they can contribute their unique talents
toward the attainment of these goals.

12. Use Teams to Achieve Synergy: Synergy can be concisely defined as “two plus two equals five”. In other
words, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. So much more can be achieved as people work together.
Through the effective use of teams, organizations can often achieve synergy. Team goals, however, must be
aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives. Aligning team objectives with overall corporate objectives
ensures that people are working toward the same goal.

Summary .
It is critical that today’s organizations align their human resources to better meet strategic objectives. A failure
to do so results in wasted time, energy, and resources. Organizations are more likely to achieve this alignment
with their corporate objectives when they review their recruitment and selection processes for fit, communicate
the mission and vision statements, use joint goal setting, design an appropriate reward system, empower the
workforce, promote and develop from within, and use teams to achieve synergy. Human Resource Management
is the management function that helps the managers to plan, recruit, select, train, develop, remunerate and
maintain members for an organization. HRM has four objectives of societal, organizational, functional and
personal development. An organization must have set policies; definite procedures and well defined principles
relating to its personnel and these contribute to the effectiveness, continuity and stability of the organization.

LEARNING ASSESSMENT
Instruction: From the readings above, test your comprehension by answering the following questions. Write
your answer on clean sheet of paper or you may also encode your answers and save it in PDF format. Send
your answer to your instructor via Facebook Page: Quests of the Math Legends – QML
(www.facebook.com/QuestsOfTheMathLegendsQML/) on or before September 17, 2021, Friday, 5:00 PM.
5 points 1. How do you define HRM? What are its functions and objectives? Answer concisely.
5 points 2. Elaborate about the nature of HRM and its relevance in present scenario.
5 points 3. Explain the role of HR manager in HRM.
5 points 4. From the nine scopes of HRM, select one scope and give a situation where that particular
scope is observed.
5 points 5. In 2-3 sentences, explain your understanding on what staffing means.
5 points 6. Is it possible for a business establishment or company not to hire an HR manager or officer?
Why or why not?
5 points 7. If you are an HR manager, how will you settle conflicts between employer and employee?
5 points 8. Suppose you are an HR manager handling policemen, give one training and development you
are going to implement relevant to this time of a pandemic.
5 points 9. How would you hire your employee as an HR manager?
5 points 10. What qualities should an HR manager possess?

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Prepared by Approved for Use:

MR. JIMBO J. ANTIPOLO, LPT, MEd. DR. EDGARDO GABLINES

Assistant Professor II, CET College Dean, CCJPS
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

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