Human Resource Management Essay

This assignment requires students to write an essay on the topic of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the 21st century. The essay should draw upon a range of academic sources, including textbooks and journal articles, to discuss key concepts and trends in HRM. Students are expected to critically analyze the role of HRM in contemporary organizations and consider its impact on organizational success.

Managing Human Resources
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explanation of Guest's model of HRM.............................................................................3
1.2 Comparison of differences between Storey’s definitions of HRM, personnel and IR
practices..................................................................................................................................4
1.3 Assessing implications for line managers and employees to develop a strategic approach
to HRM...................................................................................................................................5
TASK2.............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Explanation of model of flexibility...................................................................................5
2.2 Types of flexibility which may be developed by business...............................................6
2.3 Assessment the use of flexible working practices from both the employee and the
employer perspective..............................................................................................................7
2.4 Impact of changes in the labour market............................................................................8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Forms of discrimination in the workplace........................................................................8
3.2 Discuss the practical implications of equal opportunities legislation for an organisation9
3.3 Approaches to managing equal opportunities and managing diversity..........................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Comparing different methods of performance management..........................................10
4.2 The approaches used to managing employee welfare in your organization...................11
4.3 Implications of health and safety legislation on human resources practices..................12
4.4 Impact of one topical issue on human resources practices.............................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Managing human resources (HR) is a set of activities related to monitoring, planning,
directing and controlling the workforce within organisation. In every business enterprise, HR
plays a significant role in making the business activities and functions successful for achieving
the set goals and objectives of organisation (Flamholtz, 2012). In absence of HR, no business can
run their activities. Thus, it is an important responsibility of HR manager to manage the
personnel in company. Human resource management (HRM) is the process of handling,
recruiting, promoting and controlling of individuals for fulfilling the purpose of business.
Company's management is highly aimed at identifying better methods and tools of developing
and enhancing the overall functioning of workforce. Thus, team of firm needs to adopt effective
techniques and processes to create a better level of performance of business (Atapattu and
Jayakody, 2014).
In this report, discussion has been done on the importance of human resources and their
management in Hilton hotel. This is a famous hotel in UK, which provides effective
accommodation and restaurant services to its customers. The original hotel was found by Conrad
Hilton. There are more than 570 hotel and resort properties in 84 countries in the world under the
name of Hilton.
TASK 1
1.1
Hilton hotel needs to identify effective approaches and methods for monitoring and
improving the overall performance of their people. Main objective of organisation is to provide
better quality services to its customers. Thus, business unit needs to determine effective tools and
techniques for increasing higher productivity and performance of employees in hotel. In this
context, use of Guest’s model of HR management is highly beneficial for the business enterprise
(Lawler, 2012).
This model was founded in 1989 by David Guest's along with six dimensions of analysis
HRM such as strategy, practices, outcomes, behaviour results, performance and financial
outcomes. This model addresses the importance and structuring of HRM strategy in the business
that is to be developed on the basis of business and their strategies. According to this model,
HRM is linked with the strategic management of business and it seeks commitment to
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organisational goals. This states that company should focus on individual needs rather than
collective workforce (Longenecker and Fink, 2013). In Hilton Hotel, manager’s aim is to provide
effective services to their customers and increase productivity and profitability. Organisation
focuses on innovating new ideas and creating effective efforts to provide better quality of
customer service. Main objective is to attract high level of potential customers towards their
offered products and services.
This model helps organisation in order to create better strategies and structures for
development HRM. Manager needs to focus on identifying the best functioning and activities for
HR practices so that company can easily achieve their objectives.
1.2
HRM possesses variety of management practices, activities, decisions, methods and
approaches. Its main objective is to identify development of personnel in business. On the other
hand, HRM deals with maintaining administrative records and functioning business practices in
order to achieve individual as well as organisational goals. Similar to this, in the year 1992,
Professor Storey presented a theory in which he discussed the way in which traditional personnel
management changed into HRM (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam, 2014). He has stated HRM
as a strategic and coherent approach, which gives an effective way to manage and control the
performance of all individuals within business enterprise. According to him, HRM activities and
functions collectively contributing to achieve high performance of business. In addition to this,
he has explained the criteria of HRM practices. This is as follows- Hard HRM – According to this, manager focuses on policies and strategy in business
along with controlling and monitoring employees through quantitative performance
management. In addition, manager needs to manage the people in order to obtain value
from their performance so that company can attain competitive advantages (Stone, 2013).
 Soft HRM – In this type of HRM, employees are treated, as a value asset for business and
involvement of them in business decision is significant to gain competitive advantages.
According to storey, in personnel management, it is believed that there should be strict
monitoring over employees. Development of them is identified as cost and company tries to
minimize this cost. However, on the other hand, human resource management considers
employees as valuable assets and aims to improve their performance (Currie, Finn and Martin,
2010).
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1.3
In the business organisation, line managers and employees have responsibility to
implement and develop a perfect strategic approach to HRM. For this, both of them should
analyse appropriate information and assess the factors that are capable enough to affect their
functioning. Line manager is responsible for monitoring the day-to-day people management and
they can also manage operational costs by analysing all business practices. It is stated that they
need to identify the best form of tools and techniques in order to develop the functional and
operational abilities. It is done to bring effective results. Along with this, they can also apply
technical expertise and monitor work processes. In Hilton hotel, line manager is responsible to
measure operational performance and check the quality of employees. They can deal with
customers and clients directly (Dent and Whitehead, 2013).
On the other hand, employees play the most important role in HRM since they are the
key assets for success and growth of business. Employees help to develop performance metrics
for continuous improvement. In addition to this, employees of organisation are also responsible
to identify and implement a strategic HRM plan to maintain high quality performance. In Hilton
hotel, employees are liable to increase the productivity of services and popularity as well. Hence,
they need to develop their own set of capabilities and attributes in order to increase their overall
performance in business so that organisation can be able to achieve its target. Company is
directly and indirectly depends on the employee’s performance so that it is very significant
resource for business success (Storey, 2014).
TASK2
2.1
After considering the performance of employees in the business of Hilton hotel, it has
been witnessed that organisation needs to direct their efforts on improving abilities and build a
strong scope of flexibility. An organisation can use the model of flexibility for different purpose
and according to their requirement. It is about giving suppleness to the employees related to their
working hours and working conditions.
In every organisation, manager has to provide flexibility to their employees related to
their workplace and job. This model can be applied into business in different situations (Wright
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and McMahan, 2011). In the context of Hilton hotel, employees can be given tractability related
to workers over time. Organisation can use the model of flexibility not only for the sack of
employees but also to meet customer needs and to retain employees for achieve organisational
goals.
In Hilton hotel, HR manager needs to use the model of flexibility for providing the
effective work environment to their employees so that they can perform their task effectively and
efficiently. It helps the company in retaining employees and encouraging them for higher
productivity. In that context, flexibility is required in different areas such as geographical
location, nature of employment, adaptability of remuneration methods and business culture. It
can be ascertained that it has a direct link with the business environment and culture, which
creates better working relation among the employees (Freeman, 2010).
2.2
In the context of business enterprises, there are different type of flexibility which has
adoptable by the organisation as per their business and targeted marketplace. In the respect of
Hilton hotel, there has been used the different type of flexibility for their employees. These
flexibility are as follows- Functional flexibility – This is also known as task flexibility, in this method personnel
should have various skills and talent for accomplishing different task in the organisation.
In this method, management provides training to their employees in order to develop new
skills and knowledge. The main objective of functional flexibility is to achieve highest
workforce productivity so that company can achieve profitability. Location flexibility – In this type of flexibility, management has provided the flexibility
to their workers and employees to work far away from office plant. Furthermore,
employees connect with office by internet or any other electronic medium. In such kind
of flexibility management has provide benefits to both employees and employer. By
location flexibility method enterprise can reduce its office cost (Kakuma and et.al., 2011). Temporal flexibility – It refers to shifting working hours in order to increase production
demand. In Hilton hotel, HR manager has provided the temporal flexibility to their
employees when business requires the extra work and production. It will help the
management of Hilton hotel in acquiring high level of attention from the customers.
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 Numerical flexibility – It is termed as the process of adopting changes in the quantitative
abilities in the organisation. This area is relates, under this type of flexibility for Hilton
are the elements like number of employees present and required in the organisation,
number of profit margin, prices of the services, sales quantity etc. With the help of
numerical flexibility method, hotel can easily handle the fluctuation in demand and
supply of services (Koh and Sebelius, 2010).
2.3
It has been ascertained that the flexibility can be easily adopted by the organisation and
their employees in order to attain better results from the business working and accomplishing
assigned task. Through the adopting of flexibility, Hilton hotel has been beneficial in both
context such as organisational and employees point of views. There has a different perspective of
flexibility in employees and organisation points of view are as follows-
 Organisational perspective – The main objective of Hilton hotel is to provide better
quality services to its customer and expand its productivity and profitability. The business
of Hilton hotel is dealing basically for fulfilling the needs of their existing customers and
increase the number of customers. Thus, the adaptability of flexibility in working
practices appraises the ability of the business to address the requirements of their market
customers (Perry, Hondeghem and Wise 2010). Through adopting flexibility in working
practices, organisation can improve the structuring and overall environment of business.
Hilton hotel can also be able to increase the workforce in their operation by flexibility of
working practices.
 Employee’s perspectives – With the employee’s point of view, flexibility in working
practices can be helps to their capability and ability of work. Through this employees can
be able to increase their working performance. Also it helps to motivate employees in the
business. Personnel can also encourage for higher productivity and operation through
flexible working practices. Further this, employees can manage his working
responsibility and family responsibility. The drawback of flexible working practices is
that multi-talent employees has to work more so it create burden for him/her (Pfeffer,
2010).
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2.4
Through the adaptability of flexible working practices, it has both positive and negative
impact on both employers and employees in the Hilton hotel. However, there are various aspects
that are mostly influenced by the flexibility changes in the labour market.
 Impact on wages – Impact can be noticed on the wages and salary of the workers. Change
in the rate of wages will bring change in the remuneration of the people. It can also have
a direct impact on the employment practices of the company.
 Mobility of labour – Mobility is called as the movement of people from one place to
another. Hence changes in the labour market can also lead to movement among
individuals on geographic and industrial basis. They can move from one region to another
or one industry to another.
 Extent of labour migration – It has an impact on the flexibility of the employees as they
tend to migrate from one country to another. For instance any kind of unfavourable
change in the labour market can influence the people to migrate from one place to
another.
 Impact on HR practices – Changes in the labour market can also lead to influence the
human resource practices of the company. It is expected that variations and modifications
can be noticed in the wage rates.
Task 3
3.1
Discrimination can be regarded as the practice of unfairly treating a person or group
different from others. The basis of differentiation can be many factors such as age, colour,
gender, nationality, caste etc.
Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity – This type of discrimination can occur at Hilton when
an employee gets promoted in an unethical manner. It creates dissatisfaction among the other
workers. The organization is required to adopt fair and ethical human resource practices
(Freeman, 2010).
Discrimination on the basis of religion – This kind of discrimination may occur at the Hilton
hotel as the employees working in the group belong to different religion background. Giving
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importance or promoting any individual on the basis of his religion is totally unacceptable.
Discrimination on the basis of disability – The employers of Hilton are required to appoint
people on the basis of their abilities, potential and qualifications. Judging them on the basis of
physical factors is not correct according to the ethics (Kakuma and et.al., 2011).
Sexual harassment – It is a conduct, which is of very unwelcome and sexual nature. It consists
of a behaviour, which can make an individual feel offended or humiliated. It could be in
physical, written or verbal form. It can create very bad impression of the organization within the
society. Age discrimination – When an individual is treated in unfairly manner on the basis of
assumption that he or she is too old or young to learn something or to do something, it is called
age discrimination (Koh and Sebelius, 2010).
3.2
The implications of equal opportunities legislations can help Hilton group of hotels to
establish legal and legislative framework related to working. It can create positive as well as
negative impact on the business operations of the company. The legislation involves application
of various practices and initiatives from the side of the company. It could be related to
investment of funds, time and training & development. However it may bring delay in the
process of working and will enhance the cost of operations as well. Working on the basis of
codes and practices related to equal opportunities may contradict with overall business objectives
of achieving growth. Further implementation of equal opportunities legislation in the recruitment
policies can enhance the reputation of the organization within the industry. It will help in
attracting the skilled and efficient people for the business. (Perry, Hondeghem and Wise, 2010)
The risk related to legal implications on the company may also get reduced. If the company
works on the basis of proper ethics and rules, it reflects a positive image of them among the
public. Further the issues related to discrimination and inequality can also be avoided. The laws
and acts related to government need to be followed on constant basis. Hilton is an organization
with diverse range of workforce. Employees from all parts of the world are part of this chain.
Hence implementing equal opportunities legislation can be a major step for smooth functioning
of the business activities (Pfeffer, 2010).
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3.3
In the Hilton hotel, there are many potential employees and workers usually wants to
work for the companies. Managing diversity is generally about handling different skills, qualities
and viewpoints in a diverse workforce environment. The HR team has to consider providing the
equal opportunities and manage the diversity in their employee’s practices and policies. In the
Hilton hotel, the objective is to encourage and motivate the staff so that they can contribute their
best efforts. The approach is to develop productive environment under which all employees can
feel comfortable. Managing diversity approach is all about business and economic within
organisation. Furthermore, there is some major difference between managing diversity as well as
equal opportunity (Landy and Conte, 2009). They are generally linked with the force of changes
in the business enterprises.
With the help of fair policies and practices, organisation can build the sound relations with
their employees. These rules have to be flexible and favourable for the workforce. They should
not be binding on them. Ethical framework can be established under which they can respect each
other. Further there is a need to develop an unbiased working culture under which people from
different backgrounds can coordinate well with each other. It is about distributing the work
responsibilities in equal manner. Equal opportunities can also be managed through taking
feedbacks from the people at various levels. Their suggestions and viewpoints can help in
brining improvements in the functioning (Macfarlane and et.al., 2011)
TASK 4
4.1
Performance management is considered as a process of monitoring, evaluating and
scrutinising the employee’s performance so that HR manager of cited hospitality firm can take
relative measure in order to find the major areas where improvement is required. With this,
Hilton hotel will be able to give excellent service to their customers and will achieve their goals
and objectives in clear and specific manner. Moreover, it is also treated as a process where
organisation involves, employees, group members so that performance of venture gets improved
and they attain their mission and vision statement accordingly (Guest, 2011).
Working as a HR manager in cited hospitality firm, it is my utmost responsibility to
strengthen their performance and provide them necessary training and development. Apart from
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it, it is also required to give them constant feedback on the performance which they are rendering
to cited hospitality firm (Kakuma and et.al., 2011). This will motivate them to work with best of
their efficiency and capability to achieve their individual and organisational goals and objectives.
Moreover, cited firm has a large employee strength who are working in different departments so
that they can excel the revenue and turnover of cited enterprise. However, the evaluation of
performance management usually differ from one venture to another. It is also necessary to
choose the best technique so that performance can be enhanced. Hilton currently focusing on
performance appraisal and management by objectives (Akhtar and Malik, 2016).
On the contrary side, their rivalry firm Marriott has implemented different measures for
improving their workforce performance. Their HR manager usually focuses on 360 degree
feedback where performance of individual is collected by taking useful feedback from the peers
and supervision. This helps in judging the effectiveness of employees within the business venture
(Chen and et.al., 2016).
4.2
In today's world human resource has become an essential element of public policy in UK.
So it is necessary for the organization to take several measures regarding the welfare of the
employees, to motivate them for doing efficient work. It is important to provide the best working
environment so as to achieve the goals and objectives of the company. By giving welfare
facilities to the employees, it helps in increasing the morale at higher level and also they feel
enthusiastic in performing their work (Kotey and Sharma, 2015). The welfare schemes are
divided into two parts- statutory and non-statutory. The various schemes are as follows: Rest rooms – the company should provide the facility of rest rooms in the organization.
This helps a lot at the time of emergency. The sick people can rest for some hours at the
workplace only. Canteen facilities – this help the employees to spend their lunch hours and the tea breaks.
This makes them refresh for further working. Urinary facilities – it is very important to provide the employees with clean and proper
toilets. There should be adequate number of toilets according to the strength of the
organization.
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 Proper sitting arrangements – the company should provide proper sitting area for the
employees. Every individual should have his own desk and the belongings to perform the
operations. It is very important to motivate the employees (Glendon, Clarke and
McKenna, 2016).
 Proper drinking facility – the company should make sure the hygiene factors of the
employees. They should provide clean and healthy drinking water to keep them fit.
4.3
HR manager of Hilton hotel is generally bounded to implement suitable health and safety
policies so that employees gets proper working environment. For improving the workforce
incidents, there are occupational health and safety regulations. These regulations save the interest
of individual while working at the workplace (Ivanovic and Collin, 2015). Further, Hilton hotel
also have responsibilities towards their employees because they are their real asset and need to
be used in better and healthy manner. Some of the acts which can be considered are discussed
down below: Working time regulations act, 1988 – This act states the time duration at which
individual should work within the business enterprise. If these employees are working for
more than the normal working hours then compensation need to be given in form of
incentives to the employees. Further, the office hours need to be flexible so that
individual can easily manage their personal and professional life (Jabbour and de Sousa
Jabbour, 2016).
 Health and safety act, 1974 – This act states the responsibility of individual which they
have to consider at the time employing individual within the venture. Here, manager have
to take care of the health, safety and welfare of workers within the hospitality sector. This
act also possess power and penalties which can be imposed on organisation if any sort of
fraudulent activities undertaken by business venture.
4.4
One major topical issue which generally affect the HR practice is the organisation
culture. Further, Hilton being the leader in hospitality services usually implements long
recruitment and selection process which consist of different preliminary test and after selection
interviews. Moreover, organisation also invest lot of time and money on their recruitment and
selection process because they emphasise on getting the best one so that their revenue and
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productivity gets enhanced (Kakuma and et.al., 2011). Apart from it, they also focuses on getting
a competitive advantage over the rival competitors who are working in the same industry.
Apart from it, cited firm also focuses on e-recruitment source and it is the process where
candidates are hired through online sources (Bamberger, Biro and Meshoulam, 2014). With up
gradation in technology, cited firm emphasising on it in order to get best of the candidate for the
business enterprise. The core advantages and disadvantages for the same has been discussed
down under:
Advantages:
 Low cost to venture
 It is one of the improved recruitment process 24*7 services available
Disadvantages:
 Screening various CV is one of the hectic and time consuming process
 Organisation cannot be dependent on this method
 Not surety of employee that whether he /she will work or not.
Conclusion
From the above study it can be concluded that human resource management is an
essential aspect of the business. Guest Model is a worthy method to manage the employees of the
firm. Line managers and employees play an important role in developing a strategic approach
within HRM. Model of flexibility facilitates to make development within work at different
patterns. Discrimination is an issue, which is not good for the reputation of the firm and has to be
avoided. There are different methods of performance review such as meetings, 360 degree
feedback, progress plan etc. Company should focus on managing the welfare of its employees. In
this project report the discussion has been done on the employee’s welfare approaches and also it
defined that how these approach has impact on the health and safety legislation on the HR
practices. It has been evaluated the impact of topical issue on HR practices. The discussion has
also done the implication of equal opportunities and diversity in the business practices.
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REFERENCES
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Online
Guest model of HRM. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/ci_julaug_02_p20-21.pdf>.
[Accessed on 16th August 2016].
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