Managing Human Capital and Leadership

This article discusses the importance of managing human capital and leadership in organizations. It covers HRM models, approaches, functions, and provides recommendations for improvement. The case study focuses on Marks & Spencer.

MANAGING
HUMAN CAPITAL
AND LEADERSHIP

INTRODUCTION
To make any organization work it is very important to have a management over the
employees because they need to have someone to take in charge of the company being able to
work efficiently. To make any company work efficiently and to make the employees be involved
in the hard work for the organization it is very important for the human resource management to
be done over them. The human resource department is responsible for taking care of the
organization in the internal factors of the company. The department responsible for the
recruitment, training of the employees, payroll for the employees and checking if all the
departments are working properly. The rules and regulations of the company must be discussed
with this department or any decision making also must be discussed because the human resource
is the bridge between the employees and the management. The human resource department must
treat all the employees equally and make a bound of trust with them because they need to know
how the organization is working and where the company can improve so that the company can
work even better.
Marks and spencer is a British multinational company whose headquarters are in London.
The company is providing the customers with the products such as home products, high quality
of clothing and good products. The company comes under the list of London stock exchange.
The company is selling more clothes products because those are of high quality. The founders of
the company are Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks in 1884 in the city Leeds. There are 959
stores all over United Kingdom out of which 615 stores are just selling food products.
The report will be discussing the following details which are the human resource
management models, approaches, human resource functions, human resource software’s which
the company uses and which they should be using and characteristics of effective leadership
qualities which are required in the organization.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
HRM MODELS AND APPROACHES
HRM Models are important in studying human resource management by its analytical
framework. These models also helpful in the understanding role of HR in the business. There are
four types of Human Resources Management Models;

1. The Fombrun Model : These are the first model of the HRM which mainly focus on
Selection, Appraisal, Development and Rewards. These are the simple model which
provides an analytical framework for know the role of the HR activities in the business
environment.
2. The Harvard Model : This model of the HRM are claims to be comprehensive in as
much as it seeks to comprise six critical components of Human Resource Management.
e.g. Stakeholders interests, Situational factors, HRM policy choices, HR outcomes, Long
term consequences and a Feedback loop through.
3. The Guest Model : The company Mark and Spencer follows this third model of the
HRM which was developed by David Guest in year 1997. These model includes specific
strategies which are helpful in achieve positive result from the HR activities. These
model claims to be best to other models. The guest model demand certain practices and
when this is executed, then will result in outcomes. This model mainly focus the logical
sequence of six useful components; HR outcomes, HR strategy, HR practices,
Performance results, Behavioural outcomes and the last one is Financial consequences.
4. The Warwick Model : This is the fourth important model of the HRM, which was
developed by Hendry and Pettigrew. Both was researchers at University of Warwick.
This model also proposition centres around five main elements like other HR models; (1)
Outer context, (2) Inner context, (3) Content of business strategy, (4) Context of HRM,
(5) Content of HRM etc. This model includes strength or power of identifies and
classifies important environmental influences on Human Resource Management. This
model of HRM enables business to know relationship between environmental factors and
external factors in the organization and also understand the impact of these factors on the
business.
- Analysis Dimensions: This model has six major analysis dimensions for implementation in
Mark and Spencer
(1) Human resource management practices
(2) Outcomes for human resource management
(3) The strategies for the human resource management
(4) The impact of human resource management on the performances

(5) The financial outcomes
(6) How does it impact the behaviour
- HRM Strategies: These strategies make Mark and Spencer too much productive.
(1) HRM Practices: Hiring, Training, Appraisal, Compensation, Industrial relations
(2) HR Outcomes: Commitment, Quality, Flexibility
(3) Behavioural Outcomes: Motivation, Co-operation, Organisational citizenship
(4) Performance Outcomes: Positive, Productivity, Innovation, Quality, Negative, Absenteeism,
Turnover
(5) Financial Outcomes: Profit ROI
Impacts in the behavior: With the use and practice of Guest Model, staff of Mark and Spencer
has become more motivated and committed. There has been establishment of a guest-driven
culture (Chen and et.al., 2016). The company has been successful in creating shared values,
beliefs and attitude, also well trained and skilled workforce.
Approaches
The approach which Marks & Spencer is using is the system approach which is the company is
working in different departments which they all are trying to achieve the same goals. In this
system the company is having to work for the same motive or objective but there are different
ways to achieve those. The human resource department will have different ways to make the
employees get motivated for working in the company which are incentives, appraisals, reward
and other motivations which the employees require. The company has to make the most from the
company’s employees and a company is nothing if the employees are not there. The human
resource department is responsible for getting in the employees in the company so they are only
responsible for getting the training and making the employees work to the standards and as
expected from the company out of the employee (Weistroffer and Li, 2016).
The training of the employees is also done by the human resource department because
without that the company will not be able to work. The main aim is to make the best out of the
company and the internal factors are all handled by the department of the human resource
because they are the people who have to make the most and make the company go in one
direction and make sure that all the employees are doing a good job in the company. The

employee who is working more than expected or are doing what is being assigned to them and
they are making the company the best from their side then it is the responsibility of the human
resource department that they must appreciate that and make the employee feel more special to
the company and give them something in return so that they continue to do that same kind of
work for a long term.
The requirement of the human resource right now is to manage the company’s internal
factors because the departments are not being able to reach the company’s best outcome. Marks
& Spencer must use the proactive approach because that will make the internal environment of
the company much better and make the employees give their best within the company. Proactive
approach is that the company’s human resource manager must solve the challenges and problems
even before they arise and this is only possible when the human resource manager shares a good
relationship with the employees and this is very important because they need to understand the
internal environment of the organization only then the human resource manager will be able to
help.
TASK 2
HUMAN RESOURCE FUNCTIONS
There are a lot of functions which have to be played by the human resource department and those
functions play a major role in the company of Marks & Spencer. The human resource department
must be very professional and experienced in the Marks & Spencer company because they need
the company to expand itself (Di Fabio and Peiró, 2018) . The company is being able to sell their
clothes products very quickly because the company is providing the clothes products in a very
good quality though the prices are high of the products but the company is still being able to
capture a huge market with this product. The company wants to grow their home products and
the food products department in the market and it is very important for the company to do that if
they want their company to expand in the market. The functions of the human resource
department are as follows.
Recruitment and selection
The human resource plays a very important role in getting in the employees in the company and
the selection is done by the human resource department. The employees which the company is
picking up are not trained and they are doing this because they are not trained which means they

will not even ask for more wages from the company (Paauwe and Boon, 2018). The company is
trying to make profit from the market therefore the company is trying to save over the wages of
the employees which can make the company make a huge profit. The recruitment which is being
done by the human resource department is that the company is only looking at the employees
who are willing to work for the company and they can improve the company or at least maintain
the standards of the company.
The employees are not trained and Marks & Spencer company is ready to improve that part by
the human resource department but they cannot invest for the wages of the employees. Though
the company will have problems with that later because the wages of the employees are getting
fixed bin a lot of countries like in China the employees are supposed to be paid $15 per hour
(Cascio, 2015). The employees have to go through all the selection levels of the company and the
human resource department must be good at observation so that they can get the best employees
as possible in the company.
Recommendation
The company should take people with experience Marks & Spencer will not be able to
grow that fast otherwise because objectives and the mission the company has will not be met
otherwise (Laureani and Antony, 2017). Marks & Spencer has to take experienced employees
because the company has to do their best to increase their profits in the market and to get that the
employees need to work efficiently and experienced employees already know that the
responsibility they have are very important. Human resource has to be very certain with their
decisions because the recruitment is done by this department and they need to know the
employees they are hiring will be able to live up to the standards of the company.
The selection process of the company has to improve so that they can get to know the
people better who are coming for the interviews of the company. Marks & Spencer must be
certain with their employees and make sure that the people they have selected have settled down
in the company properly and are coping with the company’s decisions well. The human resource
must create a bound in the company so good that the new employees can come to the human
resource department and share their problems so that there are no conflicts with the work and the
employers. A comfort environment must be created by the department for the new employees by
the human resource department.
Human Resource Development

Human resource development is a department which deals with the company’s
development of the internal factors of the employees and the development is done by the human
resource department. The employees who are new and have just been hired will have troubles
being able to adjust to the work environment of the other different companies. Marks & Spencer
have to get themselves an experienced team of human resource so that the company can make
the most from that department. The human resource team which is selecting the people have to
not just make sure that the employees they are hiring are going to live up to the company’s
expectations but also make sure that they are settling down in the company properly (Brewster,
2016).
There are a lot of problems which are happening in the company and it is very important
for the company to solve those because if the problems continue then there will be conflicts in
the company which will harm the efficiency of the company. The bound of the employees and
the human resource should be really strong so that any conflict which is happening can be solved
before it becomes a bigger problem later.
Recommendation
There is a lack of bound relationship between the human resource and the employees of
Marks & Spencer and that is a huge drawback for the efficiency of the company. The human
resource department is not even getting in experienced employees which is restricting the other
products not the company to expand themselves in the market (Rahim, 2017). The turnover in
the company is huge because of which the human resource department is busy hiring new
employees and is not getting enough time to train the employees and the employees are not being
able to settle down in the company. The human resource department will have to train the
employee who are already in the company and make a bound with the employees so that they
feel comfortable to share their problems with the company.
Marks & Spencer is a company where the employees are not getting flexibility from the
company because the human resource department is not being able to connect with the
employees and the employees are not sharing the problems and are just leaving the company
directly. The human resource department has to be improved first and only then the company
will be able to grow more in the market.
Motivation

Motivation is the most important factor which is required in an employee to continue
their work efficiently and the motivation is also a part of the human resource development.
Marks & Spencer’s human resource department is so busy hiring new staff that they are not
getting time to see the other employees in the company (Frost, 2019). The employees are putting
in their best for the company but they are not getting anything in return and it is very important
for the company to give that otherwise there is no motivation in the employees who are working
for them.
The employees who are working from a long time and this is there only source of income
those people are not leaving the company but they might just if the company remains like this.
Losing the loyal and old staff can turn out to be a great disadvantage for the company because
they those employees have gained experience and have become professional in that department
and if they leave then the company will not be able to grow and will face lose in the market.
Recommendation
The company will have to focus on the employees who are in the company because they
too deserve something in return for the hard work they are putting in. The human resource is
responsible for this and they will have to start giving incentive, extra wages, appraisals, extra
holidays for the good work or extra hard work and other things which the employees need so that
they are motivated for doing a good work. Motivation is required in all the employees because
that will make them work for the company even more and the company will be able to do better.
Marks & Spencer is not doing so good with this factor and this is very important for
Marks & Spencer at this point of time and the human resource will have to do their best for the
company. There are a lot so work load on the human resource department but dividing there
work equally and giving all the individuals specific work that will help the human resource
department to work better (Noe and et.al., 2017).
Performance
The human resource of Marks & Spencer first must make sure that they are following all
the rules and regulations of the company and the company must make decisions according to the
human resource consultancy. Human resource is the bridge between the employees and the
management and the human resource is representing the employees in all the meetings they have
with the management team. There are a set of rules which are set by the organization so the
human resource has to make sure that all the employees of the company are following those so

that the company can maintain a standard of their own. The human resource also has to make
sure that all the employees from all the department are working properly and finishing their work
on time and are allotted with the work they can do and no one is being unfair in distributing the
work (Hassan and et.al., 2019). The performance of the present employees is not up to the mark
of the organization and the human resource department is just falling to get the employees to get
their best for the company.
Recommendation
The human resource has to take out time except of hiring more employees in the
company and they will have to make a lot of performance of the employees be recorded so that
when they are motivating the employees by extra wages or any other form, they are being fair
with the other employees of the organization and are not be motivating the other employees. The
human resource must do things for making the employees performance in the company increase
because it is really required by the company to increase because the company wants to expand
itself in all the fields possible and the company want to make a lot of profit. The company will
have to find different ways so that they company can make the performance of the employees
better in the company and that is the responsibility of the human resource department.
TASK 3
HRM SOFTWARE PROGRAMS
There are a lot of software’s which are designed for the human resource department so that they
can take care of the work efficiently and that is very important for them department. The
software’s are built so that they can manage their work better and the department can get in
better employees and focus on them also (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Smale, 2016). Sometimes
there are wrong entry which are made of the employees because they want to get extra wages but
the human resource department has to be really careful and has to make sure that they are fair to
everyone. The different programs which are designed for the human resource department are as
follows.
 Human resource information system (HRIS)
 Human resource management system (HRMS)
 Human capital management (HCM)
 Applicant tracking system (ATS)

 Payroll software
These are few software’s which are specifically made for human resource department so that
they can make the company work efficiently and make their work easier and faster so that they
do not lack in any department. The human resource is responsible for keeping the employees all
the personal details and know everything about the employee professionally. These are few
software’s that the company can use for tracking the employees of their company.
In the present time Marks & Spencer human resource team is still learning the software’s which
are being introduced in the company and the human resource will have to be open to learning if
they want to get there work faster and make a change in the company (Mann and Gaddy, 2016).
Marks & Spencer is using HRIS and payroll software’s which is keeping a track of the
employees but they are not paying the employees for their hard work which is a drawback for the
human resource department. The company will have to take the software of human capital
management because that will really help the company to grow and know their employees even
better. The employees are leaving and if the company can manage their human capital of the
company the company will benefit from it and even the employees who are working in the
organization.
Human capital management is the skills of the employees, qualifications, the productivity the
individuals have and the training levels of the individuals will be recorded by the company and
that will help the company to give the work to the right employee in the organization and will
help the company to grow (Hayat and et.al., 2015). Tracking of employees and their performance
in the organization can also be done by this software that means the work for the human resource
department can reduce and the company will be able to give incentives and wages to the right
people and the salary will be fair for all the employees. This is a kind of motivator for the
employees because they will be given wages according to the efforts they are putting in the
organization which will make the company grow.
TASK 4
CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS AND RELEVANT MODEL
There is a high need of leadership quality in a human resource manager and all the human
resource employees because the company has to maintain a set of standards of the organization
and the human resource department has to take care of that factor. The human resource has to

make sure that the employees are working properly and the employees are doing their best for
the company to grow (Popescu, Comanescu and Sabie, 2016). The human resource has to even
make the internal environment of the company better and to make that happen the human
resource manager must have the leader qualities. There are a set of rules and regulations of a
company and the human resource department has to make sure that everyone is following those
otherwise the company will not be able to grow. The employees have to listen to the human
resource employees and that is very important and till there is no command on the employees
then how will the company be able to grow. Leadership characteristics which are required are as
follows.
 The human resource department will have to be honest with the employees and the
management of the organization because only then the company will be able to work.
The employees who are not being able to solve their problems must go to the human
resource department but till they are not honest then how will the employee go to them.
 Confidence of making the employees listen to them and make them work under them.
The pressure is too much on the employees and making them motivated and making them
work the human resource department must go to hem to talk but with confidence so that
they understand them and trust them (Arora and Hanumante, 2017). Confidence can
make them create bounds with the hiring process and with the existing employees.
 Communication is a quality which is required and a must in a human resource
department. Communication is the main work of the human resource department and they
must work for the benefit of reaching that process.
 Positive attitude is another characteristic which is required in the human resource
department employee and that is so because if they want to create a positive atmosphere
in the company then they should remain positive themselves so that they can spread that
quality all around.
Situational leadership is really required in Marks & Spencer’s because there are a lot of conflicts
which need to be solved within the company and there is a lot of coaching and training which is
required since there is a lot of new staff coming in the company. The labour turnover is high
therefore training and development department needs to improve and work on the employees
even more so that the company can work efficiently and can expand themselves (Marler and
Boudreau, 2017).

CONCLUSION
Marks & Spencer is a very large brand and is still selling its products in the market of
clothing because it has good quality stuff but the company is not doing so good in the other
departments like home products and food products because the internal factors of the company is
not letting it grow. The human resource department has a lot of pressure and they are not being
able to deal with it and that is not making the company grow. Experienced employees need to be
hired in the company and the training and development department has to focus on the
employees of the company so that the company can grow in all the fields they are in.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal