Function and Objectives of HR in Contemporary Organizations

This article discusses the function and objectives of HR in contemporary organizations, including recruitment, employee benefits, performance management, and employee advocacy.

Human Resource Management 0
Human Resource Management
Student’s Name
6/12/2019

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Ques1. Function and objectives of HR in contemporary organizations
Human resource division shows a major part in fulfilling the staffing needs of the company.
The HR analyses the job duties and the skills required to perform fill a particular job position.
In contemporary organizations, the role of HR is not only limited to recruiting of the right
applicants at the correct time. The HR focuses on bringing transformation by being parallel to
the changing needs of the company and able making the organization more adaptive and
resilient to change which in turn helps in increasing the productivity of the company
(Farndale et al, 2010)
In today’s organizations, HR is considered as the strategic partner that contributes to the
development of the wide business plan and focuses on designing of the work system. It
designs work positions and hires employees. It also designs rewards and recognition for the
employees. The HR focuses on designing fair wage system for the employees by focusing on
the current compensation trends and assesses the policies such as fair labour trends to analyze
the minimum wage and payment for the overtime by the workers (Noe et al, 2017). It
provides assistance for the payroll setup. It effectively develops and administrates the
employee benefits program to provide adequate coverage and benefits for the employees
which in turn help in reducing the employee turnover cost of the organization. The HR
focuses to provide safety and compliance of the laws that ensure the safety and security of the
employees. It reviews the performance of the employees and designs the appraisal in
accordance with the performance to retain and motivate the employees for the organization
(Kelly and Rapp, 2017).
HR plays the role of employee advocate and focuses on creating the working environment
where the employees feel motivated and happy. It creates a culture where the employees are
loyal and competent to help the customers efficiently. The HR champions the role of change

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to successfully implement and develops the strategies that reduce the employee resistance and
helps the organization in the successful application of the change strategies to achieve the
mission and the goals of the organization (Reilly and Williams, 2017).
The traditional roles of HR are not sufficient for operating the organization in a complex
business environment. Maintenance of the good employee relation in becoming the major
concern of contemporary organizations. Issues like diversity, inclusion and ethical
considerations are becoming the sensitive issues in the contemporary organizations, which in
turn create the complexity in the role of the human resource division. It develops the need to
ethically and professionally manage the HR department to motivate the employees and retain
the reputation of the company (Recardo, 2016). HR in modern organizations focuses on the
development of the existing employees and ensures the onboarding of the new employees. It
provides the training opportunities to the employees to keep them updated in their respective
fields and also prepares the new employees to fit in the organization (Cascio and Graham,
2016).
Managing of HR in an ethical manner allows the organization to attain the loyalty of the
employees and make them more committed towards the organization. It ensures safety and
protects the right of the employees to establish good employee relation and enhance the
reputation of the organization. It acts as the voice of the employees and focuses on employee
welfare (Rees and Smith, 2017). It coordinates with the unions and mediates the
disagreements between the organization and the human resource to retain the highly skilled
employees for the company and increase its productivity. The HR bridges the gap between
the individual and the organizational goals and aims to maintain the goal harmony. It ensures
respect for all the employees and motivates them to be disciplined in their actions and
perform the activities that are morally correct (Kuipers and Giurge, 2017)

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Managing of HR in a professional manner allows the company to establish a positive working
environment and develop the organization structure where the roles and the responsibilities of
all the members are clearly stated. It aids the organization to keep the employees and reduces
the labour turnover by serving the interest of the workforce and improving the efficiency of
the organization. HR aligns the efforts of the employees towards the common goal and help
in sustaining the business for a longer period of time (Rose and Raja, 2016)
Ques2. Different ways for delivering objectives
HR focuses on developing and recruiting the best employees for the organization. It designs
the policies that address the employment issues and provides the guidance of handling the
issues between the manager and the employees. It focuses on creating a positive working
culture under which the HR ensures transparency and consistency in operations (Boroughs,
and Palmer, 2016).
The organizations use HR outsourcing under which it subcontracts with the external supplier
to manage the HR function of the organization. The organization uses business process HR
outsourcing where the outside supplier manages the distinct HR activities including payroll
management, recruitment of employees or manages the whole HR function. The organization
also uses shared service for organizing its HR activities by sharing the administrative
activities with the external supplier. The shared service model helps the organizations in
reducing the cost and avoids duplication of efforts. It allows the company to have greater
focus over the HR strategy (Reilly and Williams, 2016)
The large scale organizations use HR outsourcing to manage personnel functions. It focuses
on the proper designing of the retirement, compensation, health benefit and insurance plan for
the employees and also hires the supplier for providing training and hiring of the employees.
On the other hand, the small scale enterprises use HR outsourcing for administrative payrolls

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and recruitment (Shah et al, 2017). Using outsourcing helps the companies in reducing their
fixed cost of managing the employees. It helps the organization in making efficient strategic
moves and allows the expertise of the external supplier. It increases flexibility and helps the
companies in responding to the changing environment. Using HR outsourcing leads to loss of
control over the administration activities. The solution provided by the suppliers may not be
beneficial for the current business strategy and leaves the major impact upon the employee-
employer relationship. It creates a lack of internal communication and the loss of local
knowledge (Abdul‐Halim et al, 2016).
The organizations also use HR business partnering model to deliver the HR objectives. It
closely works with the leaders and the line managers to develop the capabilities and manages
the talent to achieve the shared organizational objectives. It focuses on shaping the positive
change in the organization, its workers and the society. The business partner aligns the
business objectives with its employees and management. It delivers value-added service to
the employees and the management (Rickard and Baker, 2017). It focuses on maintaining the
financial positions and designs the HR policies in consideration to the legal laws and the
benefits to the employees for retaining them and reducing the employee turnover cost of the
company. It identifies the training needs and keeps the employees updated in their respective
fields. The HR business partners effectively address the issues faced by the companies in the
complex business environment (Wallo and Kock, 2018).
The HR business partner has the acumen to communicate and conduct ethical practice. It
does not perform the supervisory function but acts as the coach and the mentor for the other
business positions. By using the strategic HR business partnering the organizations is able to
retain the employees and deliver high-quality facilities to the customers (Hunter et al, 2016).

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The HR function is unique and varies upon the size of the organization. The main function of
the HR is the welfare of the employee but it also consists of differences in function depending
upon the structure and the size of the organization. The differences in the management
practices of the companies reflect the unique functional structure in the staffing role. Some
organization combines the roles and the responsibilities of the employees while some make
the HR departments (Hoang, 2018). In the retail companies, HR plays a major role in
convincing the customers while not in case of the production company. However, the HR
function depends upon the type and the size of the industry. In the large size organizations,
the company has an HR department that controls the line managers while in the small scale
enterprises there is no separate role of the HR, the owner fulfills the overall responsibilities
however the complexity on the role of HR depends upon the size and the type of the industry
(Cooke, 2018).
It is analyzed that the size of the companies is majorly responsible for deciding the roles and
the responsibilities of the HR. In the case of small-size companies, HR has to perform
complex job roles because the company do not possess the resources and do not have
different team members for performing different functions. The HR at small scale
organization is responsible for all in one professional function. In contrast to the above, in
the large scale organization, the HR is responsible for providing training, building teams and
developing the procedures and policies for the company. The HR gets the support from
different team members and has the resources that provide the ease in performing job roles
(Lopez-Cabrales, Bornay-Barrachina, and Diaz-Fernandez, 2017).
It is analyzed that in the public sector organizations the main part of HR is to recruit the
employees and handles the grievance processes due to a greater level of unionization in the
public sector. In contrast to the above, the private sector enterprises focus more on the
complex roles of HR and create high-performance work practices. HR focuses on employee

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growth and pay for the performance (Lopez-Cabrales, Bornay-Barrachina, and Diaz-
Fernandez, 2017).
Ques3. Theories of Change Management
Due to increasing complexity and the competition in the business, it becomes imperative for
the organizations to implement change in the organization to cope up with the changing needs
and requirements of the business. For successful implementation of change, the organization
uses various theories of change management which helps in easy adoption of the change in
the organization (Hayes, 2018).
Kurt Lewin’s change model
It is a three-step model which includes unfreezing, changing and refreezing. Under this
model, the first step is unfreezing under which the need for change is scrutinized. It includes
Scanning of the old policies and strategies and determines the need to adopt the change in the
organization. At this stage, communication is very crucial to make the employees informed
regarding the change and convincing them to accept the change. The second step begins with
changing under which the organization focuses on transforming and brings new behaviours
and learning a new way of doing the activities (Hussain et al, 2018).
This stage is the most difficult because the organization experiences the resistance of the
employees and communication is very crucial at this stage to make the employees informed
and motivated for adopting change in the organization. The last step is known as refreezing
under which the new strategies, policies, behaviours are accepted and becomes the new
norms of the company. At this step, the organization ensures that the change is adopted and
the employees do not revert to the old procedures and policies (Hussain et al, 2018).

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Kotter’s change management theory
This is the widespread model of change management which was designed by John P Kotter.
This change management theory of his is distributed into eight stages where each one of the
stresses on the significant principle that is connected with the response of people to change.
The first step includes generating a sense of urgency to inspire them to apply the change. The
second step includes constructing up the right team with the required skills and competence.
The third step involves generating a correct vision by applying creativity and emotional
intelligence (Calegari et al, 2015).
The fourth step is to connect the employees regarding the change in the organization. The
fifth step is to get the things moving under which it removes the roadblocks, get the support
and implement feedback in a productive manner. The sixth step involves concentrating on the
short term goals and separating the final goal into short term goals to make them achievable
and giving a good way without creating any sort of pressure on the employees. The seventh
step involves persistence to overcome the roadblocks and do not stop from the
implementation of change. The last step in Kotter’s model of change includes incorporation
of the change which includes successful management of change and reinforcing it to make it
as a part of working culture (Calegari et al, 2015).
The organizations can apply force field analysis which was developed by Kurt Lewin’s. This
change management model is considered as a prevailing decision-making instrument that
focuses on strengthening the powerful forces so that they become robust than the restraining
forces. The companies can apply this model for the positive application of a change in the
business. Under this analysis, the company analyses the driving forces and the preventive
forces before implementing the change (Zand, 2015).

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This helps the organizations in understanding the complex environment and makes the key
decisions before the action plan is implemented. To implement the change in the organization
the equilibrium is shifted to disequilibrium. The driving forces are the positive forces that
support in the implementation of change which includes a change in the market, increasing
competition, the pressure of management, new technology. The involvement of politics and
new expectations of the shareholders. On the other hand, the preventive forces are the
decreasing forces that restrict the implementation of new goals which includes an individual’s
fear of failure, organizational inertia or apathy, hostility (Zand, 2015)
The organizations analyze the driving and the restraining forces through different tools of
analysis and focus on firming the driving forces so that the restrictive forces become weaker
in the implementation of change. In accordance with the Lewin’s three steps, the organization
will unfreeze the dynamic and the restrictive forces that hold it in a state of quasi-equilibrium.
In the second step, an imbalance arises so that change can take place. The last step is
refreezing under which once the change is widespread, the forces are brought back to quasi-
equilibrium and the state is refrozen (Willcocks and Whitley, 2018).
The HR department of the company effectively contributes to the success of the business. It
confirms that the right people are available at the right time. It effectively manages the HR
policies and designs the right package for the employees. It focuses on providing the
maximum benefits to the employees and designs the various incentive plans for the
employees. This motivates the employee and makes them more committed towards the
organization. It resolves the conflicts at the workplace and trains the staff to keep them
updated in their respective fields. The HR effectively contributes towards enhancement of the
performance of the organization and maintenance of the competitive advantage in the
complex business environment (Jekiel, 2016).

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Ques4. Approaches for analyzing HR contribution in the organization
There are different approaches for measuring the contribution of HR in the achievement of
the organization. The effectiveness of HR can be measured through various quality indices
and metrics. It can be evaluated by measuring the cost of turnover, absenteeism cost, cost per
hire, training cost. Return on investment can be used to analyze the performance in
comparison to the other companies. The behavior costing methodology helps in analyzing the
relationship between employee attitudes, customer behavior, and profits (Jiang and Liu,
2015).
The contribution of HR can be measured through a balanced scorecard. It consists of four
dimensions which include the financial performance of the company, its capacity to learn and
grow its customer service, and internal business process. The organization analyses the key
performance indicator based upon which the performance will be reviewed. It helps the
business in analyzing its current performance and the triggers for future performance. It
determines the capacity of the human resource to develop and grow. The scorecard defines
the internal business process and its relation with the customers. It determines how the human
resource can be harnessed and grown. The scorecard is used to analyze the performance of
human resource (Angrave et al, 2016).
Benchmarking is another approach for measuring employee effectiveness. It focuses on
employee learning and adoption of the finest practices by linking the human resource
practices of the other organizations. It focuses on learning the HR practices of the other
competing forms and making the evaluation to select the best practice. It helps the
organization in effective implementation of change and enables the managers to select the
best HR strategy. It helps in developing a comprehensive HR report by comparing the HR

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practices of different organizations and improving the organization HR strategy
(Management Study HQ, 2019).
HR KPI s is the strategic metrics that help in analyzing the contribution of HR in the
organization. It reflects the organizational performance of HR. Every organization has a
unique KPI. The KPI’s selected must be simple and actionable and the HR KPI’s must be
aligned with organization KPI. It includes benefit satisfaction, employee productivity rate,
and satisfaction index, voluntary and involuntary turnover rate (Management Study HQ,
2019).
Service level agreement is another tool to analyze the performance of the human resource. It
is an agreement of the external or the internal supplier with the end user and the level of
customer satisfaction determines the performance of the HR. It describes the quality of
service provided and how the problems of the customers are addressed. The level of customer
satisfaction describes the performance of human resource (Management Study HQ, 2019).
Conducting of the employee surveys will help in analyzing the performance of the HR. It will
address matters like employee engagement, business climate, and organizational culture. The
feedback of the employees will help in determining the level of employee satisfaction and the
success or the failure of the policies designed by HR (Management Study HQ, 2019).
The above-mentioned approaches help the organizations in evaluating the contribution of HR
in the success of the organization. It evaluates the performance of the human resource in the
company. The level of satisfaction of the employees also describes the success and the failure
of the HR policies.

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Ques5. Findings of Article
The article which I have chosen describes the role of HR in modern organizations. It
describes that the HR performs various complex roles and are asked to redefine their roles to
improve the image the performance of the team members. Under this article, the author has
used Ulrich’s model to comprehend the part of HR in developing countries like Oman. It also
describes that HR performs more of operational roles than the strategic roles in the public
sector organizations (Mamman and Kulaiby, 2014).
I have chosen this article because it helps in providing a deeper understanding of the roles
performed by the HR and its involvement to create a high-performance working environment.
It states that HR gets the opportunity to perform strategic roles in the private sector that helps
in effectively leading the actions of the team members and motivating the employees for high
performance. In comparison to the above, the article states that HR performs more of
operations roles and enjoys high autonomy in the public sector (Mamman and Kulaiby,
2014).
The article reflects the application of Ulrich’s model in understanding the part of HR in
emerging countries such as Oman. To comprehend the role of the HR a random sample
survey was conducted and it was analyzed that in the private sector organizations the HR is
more involved and plays the operational and the strategic roles while in the public sector
organizations it was found that the HR performs more of operational roles. It is analyzed that
due to the complexities in the business environment and the influence of the culture. The
article reflects the role of Ulrich’s model in understanding the roles of HR. It is analyzed that
HR faces various challenges in maintaining autonomy and influences, balancing the interest
of the multiple stakeholders and marginalization. However, this develops the emerging need
to lift the role of HR in the organization and bring positive outcomes (Mamman and Kulaiby,
2014).

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The Ulrich model describes the roles played by HR. It consists of four roles performed by
HR. According to this model, HR plays the role of employee advocate and centers on the
wants of the employees to motivate them and make them more committed towards the goals
of the organization. The author describes that HR plays the role of human capital developer
and emphasize on developing the competencies of the employees by providing them adequate
training to keep them updated in their respective fields. It develops the employees to satisfy
future needs. The HR performs the role of functional expert that emphases on the HR
practices central to the HR values. The Ulrich’s model reflects that HR is considered as a
strategic partner that aids the organization in planning and developing the strategies that help
in the successful application of a change in the organization. It has defined the role of HR as
a leader who collaborates with the other leader to perform the HR function (Mamman and
Kulaiby, 2014).
The article also reflects that the role of the HR practitioners depends on various factors which
include the cultural perspective and the institutional theory. The institutional theory is the
framework that describes the organizational behaviour and pressure of the management upon
HR. The HR behaves in accordance with the statutory rules laid by the organization. It is
analyzed that the public sectors adhere to the bureaucratic behavior however the role of the
HR is limited to the administrative roles rather than the strategic parts executed by the HR in
the private sector organizations. The part of HR practitioners also gets influenced by cultural
factors. The role of HR in the public sector is limited to the administration because of a high
degree of reinforcement and red tape. The cultural preferences of the nation affect the role of
HR (Mamman and Kulaiby, 2014). It is analyzed from that article that the application of
Ulrich’s model will be more in the private sector in comparison to the bureaucratic system of
the public sector. It is recorded from the article that the part of HR is extended as a strategic
partner and a leader.

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High-performance working is a combined set of human resource management practices and
tools that collectively produce greater employee performance. These practices focus on
involving the employees and are directly linked to improving the performance of the
employees. It focuses on inspiring the employees by giving them the incentives, extensive
training and involving them in higher management decisions (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
In accordance with my views, high-performance working helps in increasing the
organizational efficiency by motivating the employees and making them more committed
towards the goals of the organization. The employees feel valued and are ready to perform
complex job roles. This is turn helps the company to effectively respond to the fluctuations in
the competitive market and sustain its competitive advantage (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
It is analyzed that the investment in the human capital will help in designing the new training
platforms and guidance from the outsourcing will aid the company to develop the capacity of
the employees. The organizational learning will leave a progressive impact on the
organization and will help in developing high-performance workers. It is analyzed from the
above article that HR plays a major part in guiding the direction and motivating the
employees to achieve high performance and in turn, leaves the positive impact on the
organization. The organization is able to sustain its competitive advantage and enhance the
growth of the business (Zhu et al, 2018).

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