Post on 11-Apr-2018
CONTENT
1. Business context - evidence
2. Business context & HR role: Kraft case studies
3. Theory – perspectives on HR role
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand and appraise what is required to be
an effective HR practitioner (mdf LO1)
2. Understand and evaluate the HR role in
responding and becoming integral to business
contexts (mdf LO 2/ 3)
3. Connect and apply theory to HR practice in the
workplace (mdf LO 1- 3)
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HIGH ROAD HRM
Studies show that it is beneficial to adopt a ‘high road’
HRM strategy.
This is characterized by high training, high
involvement, high rewards and quality commitment.
It requires a belief by senior management that people
represent the key source of competitive advantage.
The continuing development of people should be seen
as a vital feature of strategy in both its formation and
implementation.
But many firms do not view people in this way,
preferring to see HRM issues as a third-order issue.
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This is characterized by low pay, low job security and work intensification.
When faced with difficulties, many organizations move to the ‘hard’ version of HRM in which HR activities are designed to respond to strategy – people being viewed as a resource whose cost must be controlled.
HRP in this version is more concerned with the right number of people in the right place at the right time who can be utilized in the most cost-effective manner.
With pressure to sustain or increase profits, employees are more likely to be treated as a ‘number’ in the quest to reduce costs.
This continues despite the realization that losing staff could have negative consequences for the organization – in loss of skill, knowledge, wisdom and productivity.
‘Low Road’ HRM Strategy
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THE ROLE OF HRM IN ORGANIZATIONS
Legge (1978) suggested the following categories:
Conformist innovator - encourages the adaption of HR
practice, but within the current rules, status quo and
management style
Deviant innovator - encourages the adaption of HR practices,
but in ways that go beyond the current rules, status quo and
management style
Problem solver – does not attempt to develop HR practice
beyond dealing with problems as they arise
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HOW HR CAN MAKE AN IMPACT ON
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Develop and successfully implement high performance work practices, particularly those concerned with job and work design, flexible working, resourcing, employee development, reward and giving employees a voice.
Formulate a clear vision and set of values (the ‘big idea’) and ensure that it is embedded, enduring, collective, measured and managed.
Develop a positive psychological contract and means of increasing the motivation and commitment of employees.
Formulate and implement policies that meet the needs of individuals and ‘create a great place to work’.
Provide support and advice to line managers on their role in implementing HR policies.
Manage change effectively.
Source: John Purcell et al (2003) Inside the Box: How people management impacts on organizational performance, CIPD
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Core group Primary workers
Internal labour market Functional flexibility
Self-employed
First peripheral group Secondary workers
Internal labour market Numerical and functional flexibility
Secondary peripheral group Secondary workers
External labour market Numerical flexibility
Increased outsourcing
Agency workers
Atkinson 1984 The Flexible Firm
Sub- contracting
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THE PEOPLE PERFORMANCE MODEL
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Involvement and
Communication
Right People and
Skills
Right work
environment
Right organisation
and roles
Front Line
Manager
Ability
Motivation
Opportunity
Performance
Management
Engagement
Effort
Outcome
HRM MODELS: STOREY
Strategic
Non-interventionary Interventionary
Tactical
CHANGE MAKERS ADVISERS
REGULATORS HANDMAIDENS
Source: Storey, J (1992) New Developments in the Management of Human Resources, Blackwell
• Change makers (interventionary/strategic) – close to the HRM model.
• Advisers (non-interventionary/strategic) who act as internal consultants, leaving much of HR practice to line
managers.
• Regulators (interventionary/tactical) who are ‘managers of discontent’ concerned with formulating and monitoring
employment rules.
• Handmaidens (non-interventionary/tactical) who merely provide a service to meet the needs of line managers.
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HRM MODELS: REILLY
STRATEGIST/INNOVATOR
ADVISER/CONSULTANT
ADMINISTRATOR/CONTROLLER
CONTRIBUTION
TIME ORIENTATION
Short Long
Strategic
Tactical
The changing role of the HR practitioner
Source: Reilly, P (2000) HR Services and the Re-alignment of HRM, Institute for Employment Studies 10
Caldwell concentrates on the role of HR managers as change agents and has
identified four types:
1. Change champions who envision, lead or implement strategic change.
2. Change adapters who act as ‘reactive pragmatists’ who adapt the vision to the
realities of the organization and view organizational change as a slow iterative
process.
3. Change consultants who implement a discrete change project or the key
stages of an HR change initiative.
4. Change synergists who strategically co-ordinate, integrate and deliver large-
scale and multiple-change projects across the whole organization.
HRM MODELS: CALDWELL
Source: Caldwell, R (2002) Champions, adapters, consultants and synergists: the new change agents in HRM,
Human Resource Management Journal, 11(3) 11
CURRENT VS. FUTURE STATE OF HR
Strategic Partner Change Agent
Administrative Expert Employee Advocate
35
20
25 40
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ARMSTRONG (2009, 123)
Summary of conclusions on the role of HR
practitioners, Caldwell (2004)
1. There is the issue of ‘powerlessness’ or the marginality of
HR practitioners in management decision-making
processes, especially at a strategic level.
2. The HR function has an inward-looking tendency to
identify professional expertise mainly with
administrative concerns over who controls HR activities,
rather than questions of HR practices or who has
responsibility for implementing HR policy.
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