1 HRM 2

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DEFINED
Human resource management (HRM) is a strategic and coherent

approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets –
the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to
the achievement of its objectives.
FEATURES OF HRM
Strategic: Coherent: Commitment:

Integrate business Integrated and Emphasis on gaining
and HR strategy mutually commitment to the
supporting HR organization’s
policies and mission and values
practices
People Unitarist Line managers

treated as approach: deliver HRM:
assets: Management Belief that HRM is
and employees essentially the
Focus on
share the same responsibility of line
developing human
interests managers
capital
GOALS OF HRM
Enhance
Achieve high motivation, Achieve
performance commitment human capital
through and job advantage
people engagement
Attract and
retain the
Improve
skilled,
knowledge
committed and
sharing
motivated people
required
Develop a
Value
co-operative and
Increase people
productive
capabilities according
employee
and potential to their
relations
contribution
climate
VERSIONS OF HRM
Hard Soft
Soft
Emphasis on the need
Treating employees Emphasis on the need
totodevelop
developaahigh-
high-
‘rationally’
commitment, high-trust
commitment, high-trust
as as a key resource
organization
organization––focus
focus
from which competitive
on ‘mutuality’,
advantage can be on ‘mutuality’,
communication and
obtained communication and
involvement
involvement
Hard/soft
Using a mix of hard and soft
approaches
THE HRM SYSTEM
Human Human resource management: Corporate
capital philosophy, strategy, policies, processes social
management and practices responsibility
People Learning and Reward Employee

Organization
resourcing development management relations
Human resource Organizational Job evaluation Industrial

Design learning and market surveys relations
planning
Recruitment & Individual Grade and pay Employee

Development learning
selection structures voice
Talent Management Contingent

Job design Development Communications
management pay
Employee
Knowledge Health and safety Performance benefits
HR services
management and welfare management
THE MATCHING MODEL OF HRM
The matching model of HRM as developed by Fombrun, Titchy, and

Devanna (1984) is illustrated below.
Rewards
Performance Performance
Selection
management
Development
Adapted from Fombrun et al, Strategic Human Resource Management, Wiley, 1984
THE HARVARD FRAMEWORK
The main contention of the Harvard School of Michael Beer and his colleagues was that:
‘Today, many pressures are demanding a broader, more comprehensive and more strategic
perspective with regard to the organization’s human resources… [This involves] the
consideration of people as potential assets rather than variable costs’.Their framework is
modelled below.
Stakeholder
interests:
• shareholders
• management
• employees
• government
• unions Long-term
HRM policy HR outcomes:
consequences:
choices:
• commitment  individual well-
• employee influence
Situational factors: being
• human resource • congruence
• workforce • Organizational
flow
characteristics • cost-effectiveness effectiveness
• reward systems
• business • societal well-
• work systems
strategy and being
conditions
• management
philosophy
• labour market
• unions
• task technology
• laws and social
Source: M Beer et al, Managing Human Assets, The Free Press, 1984
values
THE DAVID GUEST MODEL OF THE LINK
BETWEEN HRM AND PERFORMANCE
HR
effectiveness
Business strategy Quality of

HR outcomes: goods and
employee services
HR practices competence, Financial
commitment performance
and flexibility Productivity
HR strategy
Source: Guest et al, Effective People Management, CIPD, 2000
THE BATH PEOPLE AND PEFORMANCE MODEL
Training and Performance Career

Job security
development management opportunity
Recruitment and
selection Ability and skill
Front-line Organizational Discretionary

Pay
Motivation and management: commitment behaviour
satisfaction
incentive - Implementing
- enacting Motivation
Work–life - leading Performance
balance - controlling Job satisfaction outcomes
Opportunity to
participate
Job challenge/
autonomy
Teamworking Involvement
Source: J Purcell et al, Understanding the People

and Performance Link, CIPD, 2003
Communications
HOW HR CAN MAKE AN IMPACT ON 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: J Purcell et al, Inside the Box: How people management impacts on organizational performance, CIPD,
2003
ROLE OF THE HR FUNCTION
The role of the HR function is to enable the organization to achieve its

objectives by taking initiatives and providing guidance and support on all
matters relating to its employees. The basic aim is to ensure that management
deals effectively with everything concerning the employment and development
of people and the relationships that exist between management and the
workforce. A further key role for the HR function is to play a major part in the
creation of an environment that enables people to make the best use of their
capacities and to realize their potential to the benefit of both the organization
and themselves.
A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES
1. HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy

execution.
2. HR should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed.
3. HR should become a champion for employees.
4. HR should become an agent for continuous transformation.
Source: D Ulrich, A new mandate for human resources, Harvard Business Review, Jan–Feb 1998
ROLES OF HR PROFESSIONALS
• Business partner: sharing responsibility with their line

management colleagues for the success of the enterprise.
• Strategist: addressing major long-term issues affecting the
management and development of people and the employment
relationship.
• Interventionist/innovator: developing new approaches to people
management.
• Internal consultant: analysing and diagnosing problems and
proposing solutions.
• Monitor: ensuring that the organization’s HR policies are
implemented properly and consistently.
VIEWS ON THE STRATEGIC BUSINESS PARTNER CONCEPT
My credibility depends on The CIPD thinks that we will
running an extremely efficient all be strategic business
and cost-effective partners, and we’re not you
administrative machine… If I know. We have to deal with
don’t get that right, and day-to-day HR issues that
consistently, then you can arise in the business.
forget about any big ideas.
Student practitioner
HR Director
Give me a break!, it’s so demeaning.

The term worries me to death. HR has to be
How many people in marketing or
an integral and fundamental part of
finance have to say they are a
developing the strategy of the business. I
partner in the business? Why do we
don’t even like the term ‘close to the
have to think that we’re not an
business’ because, like business partner, it
intimate part of the business, just
implies we are working alongside our line
like sales, manufacturing and
management colleagues but on a separate
engineering? I detest and loathe the
track, rather than people management being
term and I won’t use it.
an integral part of the business.
Tim Miller, Standard Chartered Bank
Alex Wilson, BT
HR’S STRATEGIC ROLES
Formulate integrated
HR strategies
Work with line

managers to
Contribute to the support the
development of achievement of
business strategies their business
goals
HRM MODELS: TYSON AND FELL
HR activities are largely routine – employment
and day-to-day administration. Policies are
Clerk of works
short-term and ad hoc.
The HR department will use fairly sophisticated

systems. The HR manager is likely to be a
Contracts manager professional or very experienced in industrial
relations but will not be on the board and will act
mainly in an interpretative, not a creative or
innovative role.
HR policies exist as part of the corporate
strategy. Human resource planning and
Architect
development are important concepts and a
long-term view is taken. The head of HR is
probably on the board, with power derived from
professionalism and contribution to the
business.
Source: S Tyson and A Fell, Evaluating the Personnel Function, Hutchinson, 1986
HRM MODELS: STOREY
Strategic
CHANGE MAKERS ADVISERS
Interventionary Non-interventionary
REGULATORS HANDMAIDENS
Tactical
• Change makers (interventionary/strategic) which is 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.
Source: J Storey, New Developments in the Management of Human Resources, Blackwell, 1992
HRM MODELS: REILLY
Strategic
STRATEGIST/INNOVATOR
CONTRIBUTION
ADVISER/CONSULTANT
ADMINISTRATOR/CONTROLLER
Tactical
Short
Long
TIME ORIENTATION
The changing role of the HR practitioner
Source: P Reilly, HR Services and the Re-alignment of HRM, Institute for Employment Studies, 2000
HRM MODELS: CALDWELL
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 coordinate, integrate and
deliver large-scale and multiple change projects across the
whole organization.
Source: R Caldwell, Champions, adapters, consultants and synergists: the new change agents in HRM, Human
Resource Management Journal, 11 (3), 2002
COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR HR SPECIALISTS
Business and Understands: (1) the business’ environment, the competitive pressures it faces and its critical
cultural awareness success factors, (2) the business’ key activities and processes and how these affect business
strategies, (3) the culture (core values and norms) of the business, (4) how HR policies and
practices can impact on business performance – puts this understanding to good use.
Strategic capability (1) Seeks involvement in business strategy formulation and contributes to the development of
the strategy, (2) understands how HR can support the achievement of the business strategy,
(3) contributes to the development for the business of a clear vision and set of integrated
values, (4) develops and implements coherent HR strategies that are integrated with the
business strategy and one another.
Organizational (1) Contributes to the planning and implementation of cultural change and organizational
effectiveness development programmes, (2) helps to develop resource capability by ensuring that the
business has the skilled, committed and well-motivated workforce it needs, (3) helps to develop
process capability by influencing the design of work systems to make the best use of people,
(4) contributes to the development of knowledge management processes.
Internal consultancy (1) Carries out the analysis and diagnosis of people issues and proposes practical solutions,
(2) adopts interventionist style to meet client needs; acts as catalyst, facilitator and expert as
required, (3) uses process consultancy approaches to resolve people problems, (4) coaches
clients to deal with own problems; transfers skills.
Service delivery (1) Anticipates requirements and sets up appropriate services to meet them, (2) provides
efficient and cost-effective services in each HR area, (3) responds promptly and efficiently to
requests for HR services, help and advice, (4) promotes the empowerment of line managers to
make HR decisions but provides guidance as required.
Continuous (1) Continually develops professional knowledge and skills, (2) benchmarks good HR practice,
professional (3) keeps in touch with new HR concepts, practices and techniques, (4) demonstrates
development understanding of relevant HR practices.
EVALUATING THE HR FUNCTION
General criteria • contribution to organizational effectiveness
• achievement of specified goals
• specified quantified measures
• stakeholder perspective (management, line managers and employees)
Organizational quantified • added value per employee

criteria • added value per £ of employment costs
• sales value per employee
• costs per employee
Employee behaviour • retention and turnover rates

criteria • absenteeism
• frequency/severity rates of accidents
• ratio of grievances to number of employees
• time lost through disputes
• number of references to employment tribunals
HR function service-level • average time to fill vacancies

criteria • time to respond to applicants
• cost of advertisements per reply/engagement
• training hours/days per employee
• time to respond to and settle grievances
• cost of induction training per employee
• cost of benefits per employee
TEN WAYS OF ENSURING THAT HR INNOVATES
EFFECTIVELY
1. Be clear on what has to be achieved and why.

2. Ensure that what you do fits the strategy, culture and circumstances of the
organization.
3. Don’t follow fashion – do your own thing.
4. Keep it simple – over-complexity is a common reason for failure.
5. Don’t rush – it will take longer than you think.
6. Don’t try to do too much at once – an incremental approach is generally best.
7. Assess resource requirements and costs.
8. Pay close attention to project planning and management.
9. Remember that the success of the innovation rests as much on the
effectiveness of the process of implementation (line manager buy-in and skills
are crucial) as it does on the quality of the concept, if not more so.
10. Pay close attention to change management – communicate, involve and train.

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HUMAN RESOURCE

Human resource management (HRM) is a strategic and coherent

Strategic: Coherent: Commitment:

People Unitarist Line managers

People Learning and Reward Employee

Human resource Organizational Job evaluation Industrial

Recruitment & Individual Grade and pay Employee

Talent Management Contingent

The matching model of HRM as developed by Fombrun, Titchy, and

Business strategy Quality of

Source: Guest et al, Effective People Management, CIPD, 2000

Training and Performance Career

Front-line Organizational Discretionary

Source: J Purcell et al, Understanding the People

• Develop and successfully implement high-performance work practices, particularly

The role of the HR function is to enable the organization to achieve its

1. HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy

• Business partner: sharing responsibility with their line

Give me a break!, it’s so demeaning.

Work with line

The HR department will use fairly sophisticated

CHANGE MAKERS ADVISERS

• Change makers (interventionary/strategic) which is close to the HRM model.

The changing role of the HR practitioner

Caldwell concentrates on the role of HR managers as change agents and has

Organizational quantified • added value per employee

Employee behaviour • retention and turnover rates

HR function service-level • average time to fill vacancies

1. Be clear on what has to be achieved and why.

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