Human Resource Management Objective Order Instructions: Guest (2011) argues that we are still ‘searching for some answers’ to the perennial question of the linkage between HRM and business performance.
Ideally, HR professionals and other organizational leaders would be able to inform their decisions about policies and practices with the sound theory developed through research, and they would be able to assess the effectiveness of their decisions using valid metrics. Though we may not have all of the answers, how can HR leaders move forward with what we have? How can leaders use alternative ways of thinking about organizational performance and effectiveness, such as ‘human capital management’ (Armstrong, 2006) to enhance management approaches? To prepare for this essay:
•Consider how ideas from some of your other readings this week might relate to the issues outlined in the article.
•Formulate a critical response to Guest’s (2011) article, addressing how HR professionals might measure the effectiveness of their own efforts and how they might test ideas about HRM practice in their own contexts.
•What measures, metrics or tools might HR professionals use to assess the effectiveness of HRM and/or HCM, and/or its contribution to business performance?
•What types of questions might an HR leader, or another organisational leader with HR responsibilities, be able to answer in his or her own context about how to improve HRM/HCM effectiveness?
•In organizations with which you are familiar, what types of information about HRM/HCM effectiveness and business performance were available? What types of information might have been useful in improving management practice?
•Sharing alternative perspectives on strategies for assessing HRM and/or HCM effectiveness in an organization
•Synthesising general lessons about the value of different kinds of metrics, tools, and approaches for evaluating HRM/HCM practice
1) I want a typical and a quality answer which should have about 1100words.
2) The answer must raise appropriate critical questions.
3) The answer must include examples from experience or the web with references from
relevant examples from real companies.
4) Do include all your references, as per the Harvard Referencing System,
5) Please don’t use Wikipedia web site.
6) I need examples from peer reviewed articles or researches.
Human Resource Management Objective Sample Answer
Introduction
The major Human Resource Management objective is literally to provide competent and skilled employees who are well trained and experienced on the duties and responsibilities that have been assigned to them. The policies of the HRM are to pursue the agreed goals that aim at achieving the high behavioral and attitudinal commitment that reflects strong identification with the competitive firm. In pursuit of excellence, the human resource requirement may be achieved by effective tapping of consistent policies that mainly promote commitment as a consequence of promoting employee willingness to act flexibly (Guest 1987). Successful HRM policies and practices involve complete identification of dedicated employees with aims and values that match the organization’s core objective. The argument that employees should be considered as assets to the company and be treated as valuable human capital instead of as variables was first forwarded by Karen Legge (1995) and emphasized by Armstrong and Barron (2002) that the collective abilities, skills and experience of skilled and competitive employees when combined with the management’s ability to coordinate and deploy for the interest of the company and its optimal performance (Grinyer, Mayes and McKiernan, 1988).
Performance management strategy in most organizations targets performance improvement to deliver on effective organization achievement, individual and teamwork performance. Employee development is necessary for the attainment of performance improvement in the achievement of an organization’s core competence and the satisfaction of the needs and stakeholders expectations. Communication and employee involvement plays a critical role in employee performance also. These activities provide the measures to gauge employee performance in retrospect to HRM role in performance management. (Guest and Hoque, 1996)
The links between HRM and performance were initially made by Fombrun (1984), Miles and Snow (1984) and Walton (1985) These people linked business strategy in organizations to human resource management while Walton (1985) expanded his theory to include the organization behavior perspective that highlighted the movement from people control processes to commitment based approaches as a management tool to motivate people to work. HRM high commitment principles proved successful in improving employee performance in several organizations in Europe as documented by Peter and Waterman (1982).
Another method that was applied to measure the performance of the HRM activities was the survey based statistical analysis that studied the HRM and performance evaluation in steel mills that were conducted by Doty (1996) in the banking sector. The other measures of performance were carried out by Dyer and Reeves (1995) and also by Becker and Gerhart (1996) that offered sufficient consideration for the critical conceptual issues that occurred as a result of the backlash and reflection created during the rush for empiricism (Guest, Michie, Sheehan and Conway, 2003). The concepts of universalists, configuration and contingency were used to highlight the relationship between the appropriate HRM practices and the application of the theories (Becker and Gerhart, 1996)
The other method that was applied as a way of measuring the performance of the HRM polices was based on the expectancy theory or concept (Vroom 1964). The theory was used as a basis for determining the core elements that made up the HRM policies. Performance management strategy in most companies target performance and skills improvement to deliver on effective organization achievement, personal employees performance and also teamwork performance play a key role in the theory (Godard 2004) Employee development and training is necessary for attainment of performance and skill improvement in achievement of an organization’s principal objective and the satisfaction of the stake holder’s needs and management’s expectations. (Guest, Paauwe, and Wright, 2011)
The Balanced Scorecard has proved to be an effective tool for performance measurement. It’s used as a strategic tool in many organizations globally. The BSC combines four kinds of perspective that link the overall organization performance and the HRM. The HRM can gauge the rate of the organization’s performance by analyzing the continuous employee improvement through an empowered workforce and superior project management skills (Guest, 1997). Continuous assessment of the performance of the employee records and evaluation of their efficiency and feedback reports on the overall effectiveness of their efforts in retrospect’s to the HRM efforts (Gerhart, Wright, McMahan and Snell 2000)
In the airline industry, the HRM is more concerned with customer relations as the major component of employee performance. The number of passengers flying in a particular airline is determined by the services offered by the receptionists and customer care team. The effectiveness of the HRM procedures in determining the best employees to take such jobs is what determines and rates its performance (Guest, 1987).
The other functions of the HRM in the operations department also reflect the effectiveness of the HRM to hire efficient and productive staff. The sales and marketing department must also be efficient in order to attract more sales (Guest and Bryson, 2009)
Improved performance on the operations of the company can be reflected in the sales of the airline tickets and an improved number of passengers using the airlines. The reputation and the profile of the company automatically increase with improved performance. The balanced score card can be used to measure the performance of such organizations using the available soft ware’s in the market (Gerhart, Wright, McMahan and Snell 2000).
The success of the balanced scorecard has attracted the imagination of many high profile companies and senior managers hence most companies apply it as a mechanism for measuring the success or failure of the management performance. The balanced score card has been used to track organization changes for periods that can span a decade or more. The third generation scorecard has incorporated the use of complex soft ware’s to improve its accuracy and reduce its complex systems to simple user-friendly and menu drove software options (Kaplan and Norton, 1993). Companies like 2GC have developed detailed and complex strategic performance measurement techniques that involve the design and overall implementation of the advanced form of balanced scorecard known as the third generation BSC. The BSC soft ware can be customized to summarize data automatically, collect and display the required data (Bible, Kerr and Zanini 2006). Examples of such software are like the IBM Cognos Business intelligence software that analyses and provides processed information (IBM 2013).
To conclude, the other statistical performance evaluation strategies require comparisons with the past performances of the company early years to analyze its performance but the most important performance rating that can be applied and easily adopted by the management of most companies is the balanced score card (Kaplan and Norton, 1993). Successful human resource requirement may be achieved by the effective application of consistent policies that mainly promote commitment as a consequence of promoting employee ability to act flexibly (Guest 1987).
Human Resource Management Objective References
Armstrong, M, and Baron, A (2002) Strategic HRM: The route to an improved business performance, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London.
Delery, J. and Doty, D., 1996, ‘Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: Tests of universalistic, contingency and configurationally performance predictions’. Academy of Management Journal, 39: 4, 802–835.
Dyer, L. and Reeves, T., 1995, ‘Human resource strategies and firm performance: what do we know and where do we need to go?’ International Journal of Human Resource Management, 6: 3, 657–667.
Fombrun, C., Tichy, N. and Devanna, M., 1984, Strategic Human Resource Management, New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Guest, D.E., 2011, Human Resource Management and Performance: Still Searching for Some Answers, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 21, No 1, 2011, pgs 3-13.
Gerhart, B., 2007, ‘Modeling HRM and performance linkages’, in P. Boxall, J. Purcell and P. Wright(eds), The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press,552–580.
Gerhart, B., Wright, P., McMahan, G. and Snell, S., 2000, ‘Measurement error in research on human resources and firm performance: how much error is there and does it influence effect size estimates?’ Personnel Psychology, 53: 4, 803–834.
Godard, J., 2004, ‘A critical assessment of the high-performance paradigm’. British Journal of
Industrial Relations, 42: 2, 439–478.
Guest, D., 1987, ‘Human resource management and industrial relations’. Journal of Management Studies, 24: 5, 503–521.
Guest, D., 1997, ‘Human resource management and performance: a review and research agenda’. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8: 3, 263–276.
Guest, D. and Bryson, A., 2009, ‘From industrial relations to human resource management: the
changing role of the personnel function’, in W. Brown, A. Bryson, J. Forth and K. Whitfield (eds), The Evolution of the Modern Workplace, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 120–150.
Guest, D. and Hoque, K., 1996, ‘National ownership and HR practices in UK Greenfield sites’. Human Resource Management Journal, 6: 4, 50–74.
Guest, D., Michie, J., Sheehan, M. and Conway, N., 2003, ‘A UK study of the relationship between human resource management and corporate performance’. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41:2, 291–314.
Guest, D., Paauwe, J. and Wright, P., 2011, Human Resource Management and Performance: What’s Next? Chichester: Wiley (forthcoming).
Legge, K., 1995, Human Resource Management: Rhetoric’s and realities, Macmillan, London.
Kaplan, R.S., Norton, P., 1993, Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work, Harvard
Business Review, 71 (5), pp. 134–142.
Miles, R. and Snow, C., 1984, ‘Designing strategic human resource systems’. Organizational Dynamics, 13: 1, 36–52.
Peters, T. and Waterman, R., 1982, In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper and Row.
Walton, R., 1985, ‘From control to commitment in the workplace’. Harvard Business Review, 63: 2, 77–84.
