the human resource management essay

the human resource management essay

The Importance of Effective Human Resource Management in Modern Organizations

1. Introduction to Human Resource Management

In reinforcing those policies and practices, the human resource function is undergoing two fundamental reassessments. First, the traditional bureaucratic, noninnovative, verifications and advice functions are long gone. These activities have been replaced by the expectation of being the major brokers for viewing strategic issues in organizations and performing a significant advocacy and communication role with other managers about the strategic challenges confronting people and the organization. Second, HR professionals are increasingly taking the lead roles in implementing actions for developing competency and laterally, as well as contributing information on strategic capabilities. Since the 1980s, the role of HRM has provided further support for the sheriff model, mostly via successful implementation of total quality intervention. As a result, it is now quite common to observe prominent HR executives who represent the nonfinancial shareholders and who are involved in the majority of discussions of strategic issues and environmental, societal, political and other issues before those key areas of concern become critical for the companies. As identified in the characteristics of the world, several factors have been changing political, technological, legal, environmental, demographic, and cultural, that have had major impacts on executive activities and changes associated with the development of the competitive environment.

The world has increasingly become a complex and evolving place globally. Because of both internal and external changes that have occurred during the recent years, effective human resource management has benefited in its role more and more for supporting organizational performance. Organizations have made significant changes in their formal structures and in their expectations for the contribution of line and staff functions. In the competitive and changing work environment, human resources are also becoming increasingly vital for superior bottom-line performance. Many individuals agree that organizational changes influence at least one of the 13 dimensions of work life identified by the extensive national study of the changing work environment in the United States, undertaken by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Staffing policies and practices are crucial for human resource management.

2. Key Functions of Human Resource Management

Human resource management’s issue of managing involves the work of coordination, organization, focusing, and motivation from all managers in the organization. An organization’s overall effectiveness depends on human resource positioning. Each employee known as not only an organization asset but also as a “value added” that will bring forward the rise of the same – and therefore, top management achievement focus should be placed on the department of human resource management. To get this result, managers should know, understand, and apply modern HRM principles and identify that managing involves the welfare and dignity of employees but also the organizational development and assistance. In other words, an organization’s strategies are set up and carried out effectively, the right people are necessary. Human resource management plays a significant role in terms of employee evaluation concepts, too. The practical implications show that HRM is correlated to references concerning the organization’s objectives.

At present, HRM is seen as the focal point for evaluating employees’ involvement and commitment. The question of effective HRM tends to increase managers’ interest, bringing out such a statement, by that the most difficult mission of a manager is to manage experienced and qualified employees, who represent the organization’s main forces, capable of generating a competitive edge for the organization. Human resource management has the mission of promoting human capital, to help the organization to fulfill its objectives or mission. The term “capital” is borrowed from the financial domain, but in this case it materializes in human features, such as education, ability, experience, intelligence, innovation, and creativity. In contrast, the organization sees these features as sending numerous benefits according to the objectives. Organizations will always seek human resource efforts, with behavior capabilities to generate extra rewards expected by necessary investments.

3. Challenges and Trends in Human Resource Management

There are many trends in human resource management. Together, the authors have addressed about 20 of them over the past decade. Most of generations coincide with corporate consulting firms managements, i.e. large companies that have local and global presence, and that have emerged as controlling people’s business in society. They gather evidence from several sectors of activity, and in the end, are the principal actors in the so much desirable corporate democracy. It is no longer possible to escape, more and better HR management has to support the continuous speed of generated changes. In summary, the challenge is not so much to grow, more quickly, and yes, to grow better, in a more coherent way with universal justice and continually excellence.

Following some comments regarding the different stages through which human resource management has developed in modern organizations, it is necessary to identify the trends in which human resource management has been involved within them. Some of them are well known, such as the transformation to processes of administrative management or the concern to link human resource policies with business strategies. These trends, however, are not produced in a linear manner, flowing from the general evolution of society, as ‘net’ or chain kind. Instead, trends are markers that show what is socially being assumed, politically regulated, economically legitimized, technologically viable, and what organizations are gradually internalizing in order to be able to adapt the different changes they are facing.

4. The Role of Technology in Human Resource Management

This chapter proposes a conceptual framework that challenges many of the early assumptions made about HRM practices by modern scholars. It sustains that as its name implies, the actual role of HRM practices is to promote a mutual relationship between employees and the employer, as a relationship partner. This relationship approach becomes essential to build or sustain specific Human Resource practices such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, or job involvement. This chapter also points out that Team Working and Worker Consultation are further antecedents of employees’ satisfaction and are important to the creation of a relationship partnership, but it is also recognized that the relationship does not guarantee a win-win situation. The benefits of partnership exist for both parties. This chapter states that it is through HRM practices that specific outcomes are achieved, particularly those related to employees’ satisfaction, to promote a mutual relationship and increase the perceived confidence. This merely confirms what was already suggested by some empirical research on industrial relations, demonstrating that the effects of employment practices on both manufacturing outcomes and employee attitudes often depend crucially on the presence or otherwise of joint consultation.

The widespread urgency to exploit effectively the indispensable knowledge available within organizations is determining an increasing interest in the organization of the Human Resources Management (HRM) function, having the role of manufacturing more flexible and adaptable workforces. A common denominator to these strategic roles attributed to HRM is represented by the management of the knowledge amount shared within organizations and the ability to stimulate creativity and innovation by employees. In defense of the positive correlation between knowledge, HRM practices, and innovation, some authors sustain that: “There is overwhelming evidence that organizations that pay attention to their HRM practices in the first instance create the necessary conditions within which job satisfaction flourishes. In reality, organizations exhibit different degrees of involvement and commitment with HRM practices”.

Organizations are increasingly faced with rapid changes and are being transformed into more decentralized forms. Relatively new forms of organizations aggregate a flexible workforce and are structured in an independent network of business units. Nonetheless, the human resources are the most crucial aspect of modern organizations. People are considered a major asset and they can become not only the determinant success factor in the current global scenarios, but also can be an essential factor in the lock-in situation. These characteristics are like a paradox, compelling organizations to invest more than ever in their employees and to consider human resource management a fundamental function. The necessary skills to tackle this role are designed in an integrated approach encompassing the following main objectives: (1) to stimulate an understanding of how people management decisions can either support or threaten organizational effectiveness and to be aware of these connections; (2) to develop analytical abilities on people management decisions and interventions and to understand the constraints upon them; (3) to enable the assembling of a series of tools and techniques to deal effectively with common people management problems.

5. Strategies for Effective Human Resource Management

The strategies for doing this are also well known in the management literature. The aim of this chapter is not only to review some of these strategies and processes that both ensure developments and maintenance of a highly motivated workforce but also to make a plea for the professionalization of managing people. This does not mean that there is no evidence of sophisticated human resource management in third world countries; there is, but the extent, style, and the nurturing of it remain deeply flawed. Furthermore, too many of some of the very large number of charities cannot evidence deeply sophisticated HR management practices. The charity nevertheless tries to attract and retain staff who are committed to the company, have a win mentality, and are prepared to take some personal responsibility for making the place successful.

In spite of this era of rapid globalization, many organizations in third world countries are still grappling with how to effectively develop, retain, and maintain a productive workforce that will enable them to formulate and implement viable strategies necessary to stay competitive. Many are still struggling to survive as major players in a highly competitive market within which they operate. However, one thing that still stands out above all other things, and that many competitors can never replicate, is the competence, capabilities, and commitment of the people they employ. Saving lives or selling insurance, catering for a rapid increase in the volume of air traffic, designing computer systems that accommodate changes in policy or practice, budgets or workloads, designing, delivering, evaluating, and improving training for large public sector and private sector for-profit and not-for-profit organizations – all these only happen because of committed skilled, capable, and caring people.