Summarise the organisational objectives that the HR function is responsible for delivering and how these are evolving in contemporary organisations.
Cross and Isrealit (2000) attributes organizational failure in a contemporary economy to the negligence given to Human Resources (HR). This resource is the actual deal because of its capacity to provide dynamic solutions to rising challenges stemming from the constantly changing business environment. Ideally, the human resource acts as a support system for the organization, however, the transactional approach of achieving this has proved futile in today’s world hence the tilt to performing this broad function in a more strategic manner, this approach recognized the fact that the human resources possess skills, abilities and experiences along with an ability to wield these for the greater good of their organisation (Armstrong and Baron, 2002).
1.3 Evaluate the business case for managing HR in a professional, ethical and just manner.
The issue of ethics is predominant among 21st century organizations and poses serious consequences on their existences. The growing concern on ethics related issue has been escalated by technological advancement, employee awareness of their rights, globalisation and so on. HR managers needs to prove beyond reasonable doubts that their operations are carried out in fairness and honesty in other to gain the trust of the employees they manage and general public. Beauchamp and Childress (2009) states that HR managers must abide by four principles in order for them to be perceived as being ethical, these are: respect for persons/autonomy by acknowledging a person’s right to have life choices or alternatives, to hold views, and take actions that support personal values and beliefs; exercise justices by treating others equally; exercise no harm/damage deliberately; and contributes to employees’ welfare for good all the time.
Explain the different ways in which HR objectives can be delivered in organisations.
Taylor and Woodhams (2016) stated that the HR adopts several models in a bid to deliver its objectives and the adoption of any model is a function of the size and needs of the organisation. The different HR delivery models they outlined includes the generalist and specialist model, Ulrich’s three-legged stool model, self-service model, outsourcing model, consultancy model, shared service centre model. The Ulrich’s three-legged stool model and the outsourcing model are two commonly used models and would be examined in this assessment.
Analyse how the HR function varies between organisations in different sectors and of different sizes.
The centre goal of the human resources function is to effectively manage people and performance issues within an organisation. However, the pathway by which these goals are achieved varies across organizations. Two factors have been linked with the variation observed in the delivery of HR functions, they are the size of the organization and the sector the organization operates in. When talking about the size, “the number of employees” and “overall turnover” are two variables that help classify the type of organisation. The use of “the number of employees” variable would be considered since it gives a vivid understanding of variation in HR functions across different organizations.
Explain the major theories of effective change management and how these are implemented and evaluated.
Several management scholars have reechoed in their writings, the importance of managing change effectively. One prominent reason to pay close attention to this topic has been the frequent reports that it is essential for organisational survival in this period of hyper competitiveness and dynamic business environments. Moran and Brightman (2001:11) defined change management as the process of continually renewing an organisation’s direction, structure and capacity so as to serve the ever dynamic needs of external and internal customers. The major change management model includes the Kotter’s model, Mckinsey’s 7-S model, ADKAR model, Kubler-Ross five stage model, Lewins model.
Discuss the main criteria and methods used to evaluate the contribution of the HR function.
The balance scorecard is one prominent method of measuring HR functions. It was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton (1996) as a performance measurement framework that combines strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics. This management system gives organisation a clear vision and strategy, and further translates them into actions. It also provides feedbacks on the internal business processes and external outcomes and uses these feedbacks to improve performance and goals strategically.
Identify and evaluate research evidence linking HR practices with positive organisational outcomes.
Several scholars have examined the impacts of HR practices on organisational outputs. Aspects such as compensation practice, performance evaluation practices and promotion practices have been linked with performance measures like employee’s job satisfactions, perceived performance commitment and turnover intention. Early scholars like Pfeffer (1994) concluded that the performance of an organisation can be improved upon by addressing HR practices that relates to employee participation and empowerment; job redesign; team based productions systems; human training and development; and incentives.
Explain how high performance working and investment in human capital impact on organisational practices
The understanding of high performance working and human capital is crucial. Ukenna et al (2010) defined human capital as the processes associated with the training, education and other professional initiatives devoted to increasing the level of knowledge, skills, abilities, values and social assets of an employee with the aim of boosting their satisfaction and performance.
