The Line Managers Role in HRM - Assignment Example

Running Header: The Line Manager’s Role in HRM First Names: Student Number: Institution: Course Number: Course Name: Assignment Due Date: Introduction In many years, human resource management has been considered to be a key resource for nay organization. People need to be managed in a satisfactorily way in order to benefit the organization in terms of production. Human resource puts emphasis on the need to manage this key resource to achieve the company objectives. The process of managing people is the function of the human resource function. This is because it has the expertise that is required to implement the best employee management policies and practices (Watson, 1997). The objective of this essay is to critically evaluate the functions of the human resource manager in managing people in working towards achieving the company objectives. The essay will also consider discussing some of the important human resource management models like the Havard Model of HRM and the Scientific Management School. The purpose of assessing these models is to determine some of the best practices that would be implemented by the human resource function. Background This particular case provides a scenario of a Limited Liability type of company (LLC). The law regulating the formation of the LLC requires that the entity must be formed by two or more individuals. Before the LLC is allowed to operate it must meet all the state laws that govern its formation. However, very important to note is that the laws that govern the formation of this kind of entity differ from one state to the other. In many occasions the LLC are formed in order to offer the interested investors with the opportunity to access the Flow-through taxes unlike the case of the partnerships (Collin and Watts, 1996). The case of the partnership entities, the profits or losses generated flow back to the individual partners. But this is not the case with the LLC, whereby the profits or losses generated are absorbed back into the business. This allows continuous expansion of the business through establishment of new ventures and developing the already existing opportunities (Dessler, 2003). Unlike the partnerships, the LLCs are subject to different form of tax as provided by the Internal Revenue Code. According to the investors, this is seen as a double taxation from their side. This is because after the tax has been paid from the revenue generated from the business investments, they also have to pay their taxes individually. Based on the human resource management issues, the LLC operates differently from the partnerships. It is purely the responsibility of the investors to determine who to employ and someone who can help the business achieve its goals and objectives. According to Analoui (2002), the director has an upper hand in deciding how the company will recruit its staff. However, according to (Watson, 1997) the model presents both risks and benefits for the business. The company operates under simple organization structures where specific responsibilities are charged directly to the respective function. The managers are directly responsible to the Managing Director. The diagram below represents the company organizational structure. Diagram 1: Organizational structure for the company The company model The company provided by this model is flexible. This is because under the flexible model, the company is able to adjust its policies at any time to meet the prevailing demands. This case has been demonstrated by the company’s decision to source for its employees from the local community. The problem with this decision, it is not easy to determine whether the company was going to get the right numbers of the employees they want from the local community. The risk with model is that the company may assume the role of diversification and expanding its catchment area in order to get the right people who have the skills that company’s looking for as illustrated by Beardwell and Claydon (2007) Literature review According to (Harington, 2000) and (Henderson, 2008), they found out that this model allows the directors to determine the qualities of the employees they want. Skills and experience are some of the key competencies the directors look at. The directors have the opportunity in collaboration with operations manager have the mandate to decide the process that can be used to source for employees. This includes the minimum entry criteria for employee and the catchment. This is considered as one of the major benefits that they have as company. This is because it is easy to regulate the cost related to the selection and recruitment of the new staff (Dessler, 2003). Sourcing the employees from the surrounding community means that advertising expenses first are minimized apart from ensuring that placement and accommodation expenses for the employees are reduced significantly (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). This is because the company can choose to hire the locals who commute from their homes and consequently reducing the amount of expenses paid as allowances. On the other hand, the model allows for establishment of an organization structure whereby one line manager can be assigned more than functional responsibility. For example, the finance manager can be assigned the role of procurement in addition to his function. This organizational arrangement allows for reducing cost incurred by the business as salaries and allowances. However, some scholars have criticized this model of organizational arrangement. According to (Bagshaw, 2004) this model can be an obstacle to the company in realizing its objectives. This is because the directors are more revenue oriented and in most cases overlook the employees’ plight. There is always a possibility that the employees may be overworked at the benefit of the company. Industrial actions are very common in this kind of arrangement. On the other hand, there is also a likely that the company can overlook the employee qualifications in terms of skills and experience since they don’t want to spend more on salaries for more qualified staff. Consequently, this practice can compromise the overall performance of the company. In addition, employee requirements are always analyzed in terms of cost and benefit for the company. Since there is no clear framework for the company on how to go about employee training and development there is always a risk that the company may be underperforming because of the fear to incur the cost of employee training and development. Unlike the Corporate Companies, the employees are always subject to retrenchment, unfair pay and poor working conditions. The big risk that is associated with this trend is high employee turnover. In turn this will put the company a bigger risk since the leaving employees may disclose its ideas to the competitors. Wood (1995), employee security is directly related to employee commitment, engagement and motivation. The limited liability can be dissolved at any time and therefore the employees’ job security is not guaranteed. This is because most of the LLC overlook important human resource management policies and practices. Discussion and analysis Management theories and models Several management theories and practices have proposed by different scholars that can help the company realize its objectives. The company is interested in growing its business in the next two years so that it can be able to generate £20 million as revenue. This is the gross turnover target for the company. This means that the company wants to grow its revenues by four times from the current £5 million. The company is also working on a plan that will determine the policy that will be used to recruit new employees. Management theories and practices that have been developed over years are believed to have good solution for these managerial challenges that are facing the company presently (Guest, 1997). Most of these theories and practices explain the prevailing contemporary people management challenges the line managers face in their organizations. Among those manager theories and practices that have been developed over years include the Scientific Management School by Frederick Taylor and Lilian Gilbreth. The others include the Classical organizational theory by Henry Fayol which talks about administration, Idealized bureaucracy by Max Weber and Behavioral School by Elton Mayo and others. Scientific management school This theory is also known as Fredrick Tailor’s Scientific Management. In his school in the nineteenth and earlier years of the twentieth century he argued that awkwardness, inefficiency and ill-directed movement of men was a source of national loss. The intention of Tailor was to overthrow management with only one practice. He argued that systematic employee training and development as one of the best practices that a company uses to achieve its objectives. He believed that this was the best way as opposed to allowing the employees to personal discretion in respective duties. He further argued that workload can well be shared between the workers and the management (Guest, 1987). According to him, the management should play the role of the science and the instruction while the workers will be expected to do the work and more important the work they know best. Tailor has real informed the contemporary management through his theory on how complex pieces of work can be broken down into small and manageable tasks (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). I do agree that this theory is more applicable in that it informs the management on the importance of having an employee training and development policy which can help come up with new employee new skills in managing new challenges and responsibilities (Taylor, 2008). This is so important in ensuring people are allowed to perform those task that they are best suited in. this school based on the concept of attaining goals within the stipulated time. In this case I believe the first and foremost thing to do is to train the staff in order to acquire new skills to exploit the new opportunities and consequently allow the business to achieve its objectives within the required time. From the economic point of view, Tailor’s theory contributes greatly to achieving high productivity for the company. The classical organization theory This theory is the work of Max Weber and Henri Fayol on bureaucratic theory and administrative theory respectively. Web argued that management was moving from value oriented to effective action to technocratic thinking. He was of the view that civilization was taking place as a result of searching for technically optimal results to benefit the business at the expense of emotion and humanistic content. Weber was able to develop a plan where all issues are well planned and executed based on priority (Sisson, 2001). He believed that putting issues down on record will form a good basis for the business to have the rules to follow. He considered bureaucracy as the key driver through which the company objectives can be achieved in an efficient way. However, I am real concerned with how this this theory should be applied with a lot of sobriety and good plan since it can easily do away with the workplace where people are able to interact with one another (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2008). This is because the employees will be able to connect with others only during their official duties. On the other hand, Henri Fayol studied administration and personal responsibilities in a granular form. In other words he was more interested management as a layer. He was convinced that management as a function had main principle tasks namely forecasting and planning, organizing, commanding, co-coordinating and controlling. Planning to him meant anticipating for the future and acting responsibility (Dessler, 2003). On the other organization was about developing the company resources. While co-coordinating is a management principle for harmonizing all the company activities, commanding is expected to make sure that all processes and activities are running as planned. Finally, according to Fayol controlling meant the process of ensuring that all the rest of the management activities are executed as per the rules and policies (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). In order to complement the five management roles identified above, Fayol went further to establish fourteen administration principles that can be worked along with the five primary management roles and they include: specialization, authority and responsibility, responsibility, harmonization of individual interests, discipline, employee remuneration, centralization, order and equity Analoui (2002). The others include unity of direction, unity of command and unity of goal as well as initiative. To finalize his study, Fayol completely believed that team effort and group dynamics would be an ideal complete to the company’s organization. I consider this theory among the best, since it provides the managers with the opportunity not only to concentrate on core elements of management buts also take into consideration the supporting managerial roles. The Harvard HRM Model This model takes into consideration some of the ways in which the human resource should be handled in order to meet the stakeholders’ needs. Following the best management practices is the requirement by this model. The model provides that human resource movement such as recruitment and selection, placement, promotion, appraisal, termination and assessment process adhere to accepted standards and procedures (Kathy and John, 2001). The model also provides that good reward systems should be used to motivate the workers. Delegating of duties and assignments should also be done carefully to make sure that comply with individual capabilities. However, I do believe that for the model to be effective, policy guidelines have to agree with the ‘4Cs’ of human resource namely: commitment, congruence, competence and cost effectiveness. The Chart below shows the flow of the human resource as provided for in the Harvard HRM Model. I do believe that the major weakness with this model is that it does not talk about safety and health working as supporting practices to improved productivity. Diagram 1: Harvard HRM Flow Model Key performance indicators Human resource management policies, procedures and practices refer to the techniques employed by human resource function in an organization purposely to let the staff works towards attaining the stated objectives of the company. The human resource function is charged with the responsibility of getting the right staff in terms of skills and knowledge. It is the responsibility of the human resource function also to make sure that the process of recruiting is formal and competitive enough in order to give an equal chance to every potential employee to tender his application (Beer et al, 2004). However, in a case where the company is new and want to develop a new HRM function, then there is need to involve the support of the experts in order to make sure that the human resource management, policies, procedures and practices are designed in a such away that they can be benchmarked with the best practices internationally. The operations manager in new entity is expected to identify those specific areas that need development and those that the HR specialist will be expected to attend to. The following are the policies, procedures and practices that are appropriate for development by the HR specialist: Contract signing The HR function will be expected to develop a policy that will guide the process of entering into a contract with the employee. It has to outline the terms and conditions of engagement and the responsibilities of both the employer and the employee. The contract has to take into consideration the employee needs and what the company will do to ensure that fair work and good working conditions are enhanced. It is important to develop a framework that emphasizes the need to take the terms and conditions of the contract more seriously. Cook (2004) explains that a good a contract is associated with high commitment by the employee to the organization. This is because a good contract calls for employee satisfaction and commitment and therefore it will be the responsibility of the HR function that promotes good contract terms. Even though the employee will be expected to comply with certain terms, the terms must also indicate how the company will support the employee to comply with them. Since a lot will be expected from the employee, according to (Beer et al, 2004), the company management is always expected to specify exactly what is required of each employee. After specification, it is expected that it’s the responsibility to make judgment on how to go about his responsibilities in order to deliver the best. The employees are also expected to enhance their knowledge and skills by learning from the rest of the team members. I understand that this performance indicator is very critical for any particular company and therefore is always need to adhere strictly the procedures applied as away of signing and engaging the best employees who can deliver. Employee motivation Employees at workplace need to be motivated in order to achieve high levels of performance. However, for many decades, employee motivation has remained the biggest challenge for many companies. Harvard Business Journal article by Nohria, Groysberg and Lee (July-Aug 2008) provides a clear guideline on how motivation employees at workplace can be achieved. In his article he highlights the Four-drive model which discusses four main factors for employee motivation namely: acquire, bond, comprehend and drive. The acquire spectrum addresses on how the employer should support the employee to achieve his wellbeing. This can be done through bonuses and other employee pays. On the other hand, the bond spectrum of the model discusses how positive employer-employee relationship should be used to boost the employment motivation. The comprehension aspect as provided in the article, explains how the employees should be supported to understand their responsibilities in order to reduce any difficulties that may be experienced at workplace. Finally, the model talks about individual protection especially when feel they are not safe or are threatened. This model is actually good in a working environment but it is to my believe they can be improved if as a human resource function we can work together all the stakeholder in order to develop the best programmes that support this model (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). Job design It is the responsibility of the company to design different tasks for various employees. The job design policy will ensure that there is no overlapping of functions as seen currently whereby the Directors take the responsibility of employing. According to Tailor in his Scientific Management School, jobs are designed according to the scientific management principles (Analoui, 1999). The job design policy can be used as a tool to ensure that high level of commitment is attained among the employees. The HR specialist will be expected to develop provisions which will allow the employees to take self control rather than being subjected by the system to do what they are expected to do (Kathy and John, 2001). Under job design, the employees are expected to work based on their conscience as long as they meet the minimum requirements as provided by the job design. The specialist will be obligated to develop a system that will ensure teamwork and other initiatives that all tasks are performed towards realizing a common objective Analoui (2002). According to Tailor in Scientific Management School, allocating tasks scientifically will promoted independence and the employees will be motivated to work to complete their individual tasks as assigned to them. In other words the policy will be to allow the employees to be self controlled and self disciplined in matters related to the organization. Employee rewarding The human resource function is charged with the responsibilities of deciding the salaries and allowances each employee should get. In many organizations the remuneration for employees is directly associated with the level of the organizational structure as seen earlier in this discussion. However, employee pays and salaries are arrived at through collective bargaining. According to Elton Mayo, as cited in (Chuang et al, 2004), employee remuneration and rewards are some of the management strategies that can be used to attain high level of productivity. Therefore, the responsibility of the HR specialist is to come up with a policy that sees that the remuneration of employees is in it encouraging and motivating the employees to work hard (Gow and Morss, 1988). It is the work of the specialist to decide if the remuneration will be individual or group based. In addition the market base rates will be applied in formulating this policy. Conclusion To conclude this assessment, it is important to highlight that human resource management is a process that require a lot of designing the operating environment in order to make sure that the stated objectives have been achieved. The human resource managers are charged with the responsibility of making sure that proper planning of all the activities is done alongside ensuring that proper organization and staffing systems are followed. The managers are also expected to lead and control people at workplace. The essay has also managed to establish that management is an essential factor at all levels. However, important point to note is that management skills that required vary with organizational skills. In a management environment, the HRM managers are expected to make proper use of the human resource in order to maximize productivity. High level of productivity is directly related to proper management of people and application of good management practices and procedures. Continuous learning and training is critical for all human resource managers as one way of ensuring that are equipped with appropriate skills and knowledge. Finally, an organization is founded on an open and interactive system where all factors have to be managed in order to achieve efficiency in production. References Analoui, F. 2002, The changing patterns of HRM, Ashgate, London. Armstrong, M. 1997, ‘Human resource management: a case of the emperor’s new clothes?’, Personnel Management. Vol. 19, No. 8, pp.30-35 Batt, R. 2000. ‘Strategic segmentation in front-line services: matching customers, employees and human resource systems’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(3), 540-61. Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P. R., Mills, D & Walton, R 2004, A Conceptual View of HRM. in Managing Human Assets, Free Press, New York. Bratton, J., and Gold, J. 2003, Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 3rd edition, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Cook, M. 2004, Personnel Selection: Adding Value Through people, 4th edition, Chichester, Wiley. Dessler, G. 2003, Human Resource Management, 9th edn, Prentice Hall, New York. Gow D, and Morss E. 1988, The notorious nine: critical problems in project implementation, Journal of World Development, 16(2), 1339-1418. Kathy M. & John M. 2001, Designing and aligning an HR system, Human Resource Management, 11(2), 57–72. Redman, T. and Wilkinson, A. 2006, Contemporary Human Resource Management – Text and Cases, 2nd edition, London, FT/Prentice Hall. Schuler, R.S. and Jackson, S.E. 2000, Managing Human Resources, A Partner Perspective 7th edn. London, Thomas Learning. Scullion, H. and Linehan, M. 2005, International Human Resource Management: a critical text, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Torrington, D., Hall, L. and Taylor, S. 2008, Human Resource Management, 7th edn, London, F/T Prentice Hall. Wood, S. 1995, ‘The four pillars of HRM: are they connected? ‘, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 5, No.5, pp.49-59. Nohria, Groysberg and Lee, 2008, "Harvard Business Review" . Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Appendixes Recommendations As an operations manager, one is expected to lead a team where he is expected to lead the members towards achieving certain objectives. However, the responsibilities do not come without challenges. It is important to note management of people be classified into two major models which every operations manager must understand. Human resource management puts a lot of emphasis on hard and soft management models (Bratton and Gold 2007). The hard management models are founded on the fact that human resource function must place more emphasis on strategic and quantitative aspects of people management as an important economic factor in the production process (Cusworth and Franks 1993). On the other hand, there is also need to for the managers to recognize the role of the soft models of management which particularly try to explain how management of people can be made easy through motivation and good leadership as well as proper communication strategies. Unlike the soft models, the hard models of management are expected to ensure that the human resource strategy is driven by the corporate strategy. In other words it’s the responsibility of the operations manager to make sure that strategy of his function well fits into the overall strategy of the company. It’s from this point of view that an operations manager will be expected to evaluate and determine the areas that he ought to sharpen his managerial skills (Foullkes 1980). At the managerial level, one is expected to acquire four main types of skills that are considered very important for management staff. These skills are considered the key considerations for the operations manager and they include: technical, conceptual and human as well as design. Technical skills With regard to technical skills, the operations manager, is expected to have a thorough understanding of different tasks and activities that surround the policies, procedures and practices that are used to manage a function. In essence the ability to understand the processes involved in performing a given task, helps one to understand and identify the specific strategies, tools and techniques that should be applied. This implies technical competence and the level of engagement in the activities of the management function. Engagement is particularly possible if the operations manager is aware of what is expected of him and the way he should he about executing different tasks of a function (Redman and Wilkinson 2001 and Scullion and Linehan 2005). Human skills on the other hand are very necessary in letting to understand how to manage people in different context. This is an important consideration for any operations manager since he must be having people who work under him. Human skills require that the operations manager develop certain competencies that will help him work together with the other team members. A cooperative effort is a key consideration that must be taken into account. It is through the ability to work with a team and inspire a team that will make one to be committed to his work (Torrington et al 2008 and Bratton and Gold 2003). This is because will be able to understand and manage different group dynamics. The operations manager must consider the ability to create a team where as a person he will feel secure because of the working environment he has created (Analoui 1999). On the other hand, good cooperation and teamwork strategies must form part of the important requirements and considerations. This is so because people will be willing to work under your leadership and consequently one is likely to feel contented and ready to commit himself towards performing different functions. Conceptual skills Another key consideration for the operations manager is the ability to develop conceptual skills. This is founded on the ability to see issues on wider perspective and how they affect the performance of the business in general terms. It also entails the ability to identify the specific elements that are involved in a particular scenario. In other words one must be considered on seeing issues in a bigger picture with regard to the other competitors in the industry. This major consideration further requires that one be to understand the relationship that exists between different scenarios (Redman and Wilkinson 2006). As a matter of fact the process of conceptualization is a continuous process and it involves learning from different scenarios. Design skill is also one of the important skills that one be interested in developing. It entails the development of certain capabilities that could used to solve different problems and in away they are considered beneficial to the business. People management skills In a working environment where different individuals are involved, for one to be effective he must be concerned on how to solve problem rather than seeing a problem. In this case the operations manager must interested on how to become part of the solution to achieving the company goals and objectives. This skill is very essential at levels of management (Armstrong 2006). Training is very important in solving certain problems. This is because one may be expected to solve practical problems and that require immediate solution. In addition, the operations manager must be capable to develop a workable solution to the problem and one must accept the reality that problems are obvious and can only be used to build individual experiences. Acquiring management skills However, according to (Schuler and Jackson 2000), the key considerations that have been discussed above must be acquired either through formal or informal training and experience. The operations managers should therefore be concerned on the available avenues of training and learning that are available and that are provided for by the company. As a matter of fact these considerations are key managerial level than any other level within an organization. The ability to recognize the inadequacy of these important skills will form a good basis for determining the individual learning needs. This will be determined with individual level of competence in these skills (Whittington 1993). This is particularly important because there is a general assumption that the chief executives rely on the middle level manager’s technical competence in implementing corporate strategies. Learning opportunities are always key considerations for operations managers given the fact that they are charged with several responsibilities to perform for the organization. First, the operations managers are expected to make an enterprise a profitable one. Second, the operations managers are expected to perform all the managerial functions within their description. For this reason, the managers are expected to be dynamic and live giving factor for the business and therefore there is need for continuous learning and training for all operations managers (Kirton and Greene 2005). Read More