Managing Human Capital and Leadership

MANAGING HUMAN
CAPITAL AND LEADERSHIP
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INTRODUCTION
Human capital management is being refereed to as the procedure of acquiring, retaining
associates, training so as to make the employees more productive towards the company. Such
type of management mainly focus on improving the current abilities as well as the skills of the
workers so that they can refine their working capabilities much more. Unilever Private Limited
Company has been considered in this report, it is a British Dutch consumer good company in
London, United Kingdom. It was founded on 1929 and now its products are being served world
wide, which makes the company one of the aged multinational organisation. The products
includes beauty accessories, food, personal care stuffs, beverages, cleaning agents. The report
will discuss some HRM models, various functions of HR will also be covered. Evaluation of
HRM software programmes will be conducted and features of effective leaders will be
mentioned while giving appropriate recommendations to benefit the company.
TASK 1
Drawing on relevant HRM models, analyse the approach of the company to the management of
its human resources.
Unilever plc has been facing various HR issues like maintaining the price and the
margins related to their products, other issues are reduced staff turn over, weak performance and
rivalry companies have been considered as major threats which have to minimised by the
company for ensuring smooth and efficient functioning of the HR department.
HRM model or framework can be define as a term which focus on strategic scheme of the
organisation which is design to coordinate and administer different functions of business in
context with human capital (Browne and et.al., 2016). Models of HRM combine different
principles of soft and hard HRM but majorly focus on only one of the two approaches. Some of
the most practical HRM models which can be implemented in Unilever organisation are
discussed here.
The Harvard Model-
This particular model of HRM comprises of six components such as stakeholders
interests, HRM policy choices, situational factors, HRM outcomes, long term consequences and
a feedback loop through. Stakeholders include management, shareholders, government,
employee and many more. These stakeholders interest basically define HRM policies. Situational
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factors majorly impact on stakeholders interest which consist of characteristics of workforce,
unions, business strategy, laws and social values (Leroy and et.al., 2018). HRM policies are then
further influenced by situational factors and stakeholders interests. It consist of core activities of
HR such as training and development, recruitment and selection and reward systems. Such
policies of HRM will eventually leads to positive HRM outcomes if done well. Outcomes such
as competence, commitment, cost effectiveness and mention that will help Unilever to achieve
their target goals an objectives more effectively. Long term consequences are majorly caused by
positive HRM outcomes. It could be social, individual or organisational.
The HR value chain-
It is consider as one of the best model of HRM. According to this model, everything
which is done in HR department of the organisation can be divided in two different categories
which are HRM outcomes and HRM activities. HRM outcomes can be define as goals and
targets which are achieved by organisation with the help of HRM activities. HRM department
recruit number of candidates and train them in order to achieve target goals or outcomes.
Outcomes consist of employee satisfaction, retention, motivation and presence. However, HRM
activities can be define as day routine activities such as training, recruitment, compensation and
planning, Measurement of such activities are often done with the help of HRM metrics (Mayo,
2016). Both HRM activities an outcomes when attain well in the organisation leads to better
performance and positive results. It means that candidates are being recruited by HR department,
and then sent to right training programs and thus performance of company increases.
The Standard Causal Model-
It is a best known model for HRM. This particular model has been derived from number
of models which has been developed till date. It represents a casual chain which initiate with
business strategy and ends with HR processes including improved financial performance. This
model shows that how different activities of HR reflects business performance and leads to
success. It represent that activities of HR is proved to be effective only it is matching with
business strategy. Thus, HR strategy is derived from overall business strategy. Practices of HR
follows HR strategy. For instance, training, hiring, appraisals and compensation. Such practices
of HR will lead to positive outcomes such as commitment and engagement of employees as well
as improved quality of operations.
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