Management Practices and Challenges

This solved assignment delves into various aspects of management, including the complexities of managing virtual teams, leadership styles, and contemporary challenges. It examines human resource management (HRM) principles, the role of line managers in HR and learning & development, and people skills crucial for successful leadership in a dynamic work environment. The assignment further explores knowledge management strategies and systems thinking in risk management.

Management and Leading People

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Defining recruitment and selection of employees.......................................................................3
Recruitment and selection process..............................................................................................5
The process of recruitment and selection process.......................................................................9
Theories and models of recruitment and selection....................................................................10
Identifying and evaluating the relationship between line manager and leader ........................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resources are the valuable asset for business organization but managing people is
also important for them. For this, there are various factors such as motivation, job design, reward
system, recruitment and training. Therefore, it requires an effective HR manager and line
manager which can work together to attain the common goals and objectives. They communicate
and coordinate with their staff on various issues and try to solve the matter in an effective
manner which can improve employee’s productivity and performance (Ahmed and Haboubi,
2010). The present report is based on role of line manager and leader and its cohesive
relationship with HR department of the company. The report focuses on various types of
recruitment and selection approaches. The main purpose of this report is to use various tools of
workforce planning and recruitment and its implementation. HR representatives are responsible
for guiding and motivating employees. The companies are now hiring efficient and qualified HR
administrator or representatives and line managers so as to operate the business in a smooth and
in an efficient manner. So that they can attain their organisational goals and objectives
effectively (Bateman, and Snell, 2011).
Defining recruitment and selection of employees
HR manager plays a significant role in managing employees within the business
organization. The major role of HR manager is to maintain good relationship between
employee's-employer and workforce planning to meet the future challenges effectively. They
also coordinate with higher authorities, line manager and different functional department such as
finance, marketing, production etc. in order to maintain consistent development of their business
operations. On the other hand, line manager are those person who have direct relation with the
staff of a business unit. They are responsible in monitoring the workforce within the business
entity (Berger, 2011). It also helps in attaining business targets in a period of time. In the today's
competitive world, competencies is required to sustain in the market. For this each business
organisations is focused on their recruitment and selection process so that they can get the right
people for the right job. In order to gain such advantages a company is required to focus on their
staff and its performance. Line manager plays crucial in the human resource management. They
communicate with HR department on various issues such as appraisal techniques, interview

process in filling the vacant position of the business unit, issues regarding the salaries and pay
which are related with the employees.
There are various functions which are performed by the HR manager as given below:
Strategic role: This is one of the important functions where HR manager is responsible
in meeting the organizational competencies such as talented workforce, skilled and qualified
employees. So that the business operations of the company is going in a smooth manner.
Workforce planning: This is another important role of HR manager which is related
with the workforce planning (Chhokar, Brodbeck and House, 2013). Business environment
change over a period of time, to meet these changes HR manager make planning which can fulfil
their staffing requirements.
Recruitment and Selection: In this function, HR manager also focuses on recruiting and
selecting capable potential staff of the company. They take various decisions regarding
recruitment by using the internal and external tools. Apart from that, they are also responsible for
overall process of selection and interview.
Training and development: It is one of the significant functions so that a company
sustain in the market. The employees are the valuable asset, therefore HR manager is required to
provide personal and professional development plan which can help to increase competencies
and productivity. HR department conducts training program for their staff on the regular basis
which help them to improve their performance and productivity (Christopher and et. al., 2011).
It can lead to increase profitability of the company which is a common goal for each and every
business organization. They also analyses training for their new candidates in order to make
them employable in the company.
Employee relation: The role of HR manager is to maintain harmonious relationship
between employees and the higher authorities. It is essential to maintain consistent growth of the
company. There are various issues and conflicts which can harm these relationships. The HR
department of the company are help to overcome the communication gap between higher
authorities rest of the staff of the business organisation.
The role of line managers or leaders is as follows:
 The main role of the line manager is to enhance employee engagement within the
organization. They use various tools and techniques to coordinate with them.

 They also focus on the performance appraisal approaches and evaluate their performance
to attain organizational goals and objectives (Crandall, Parnell and Spillan, 2013).
 They also supervise employees and its performance at the workplace and provide
guidelines and direction as how to perform the task effectively.
 The role of line manager is to set the performance standards and try to improve staff
performance by providing training and development program.
 They maintain discipline in the premises of their company which enable to create a
positive working environment which can enhanced productivity.
 They also emphasize on the pay and benefits of employees and make sure that they
receive their pay on time and they also participate in the conflict resolution process and
provide guidelines regarding that (Dekker and et. al., 2013).
All the business especially in the multinational corporations are appoint line manager and
HR manager in order to maintain organisational performance in a effective manner. For example,
M&S has chartered HR representative and leading people who are responsible for effective
direction of their workers in retail stores so that there can have good interaction with their
customers and achieve the desired goals.
Recruitment and selection process

Recruitment and selection is one of the essential part of any business organization. It is
the central activities of the HR department which includes various complexities. It is process of
identifying competent and capable individual from the pool of potential employees of the
company. It is a systematic approach where the HR department of the identifies and determining
the current and future needs of the firm's and fill the vacant post of a business unit (Dols,
Landrum and Wieck, 2010). On the other hand, selection refers to the process in which the HR
manager of the business entity choose an appropriate and talented candidates from the large
number of applicants. There are two types of approaches which can be used by the company
internal and external.
Internal recruitment: An internal recruitment is a process where the HR department
recruitment their potential staff from within the business unit. It is one of the common approach
where a company does not require various advertisement tools in order to meet their
requirements. There are various methods in the approach which can be used by the business firm
as given below:
 The first method of internal recruitment is called promotion. It is refers to the upgrading
of an employee's who is already working in the company and contributed in the
organizational performance. It this approach an individual can promote on the higher
level with the additional roles and responsibilities, status, pay and so on.
 Transfer is another tool which can be used by a company in order to fill their vacant
position through their existing staff. In this techniques HR manager can transfer the role
and duties of an employees from one department to another department.
 Employees referrals is one of the best approach in which a company can recruit new
employees with the references of their current staff. Under this method, a candidate can
be appointed on the recommendation of the existing employees (Doz, 2011).
Advantages of internal recruitment:
 It is a cost effective approach for the recruitment which not required to spend too much
amount.
 The employees are already knows their roles and responsibilities and does not require
training program.
 This approach help to provide opportunities for their existing staff of the company for
growth and development.

 It can save the time on the recruitment which can help to increase the performance and
productivity their employees (Galliers and Leidner, 2014).
Disadvantages of internal recruitment:
 There are limited number of employee's which can not fulfilling the requirement of the
company.
 No new ideas and concepts introduced in the business operations from outside.
 It can increase the new need of existing vacant position which requirement more staff.
External recruitment: An external recruitment is a process in which the HR manager search
skilled and capable candidates from the outside of the business unit. This method can be used by
various small and large organization in order to meet its current and future requirements of the
company. It required various advertisement tools and techniques such as electronic, social and
print media to fill their vacant position (Griffin and Moorhead, 2011). There are various
approaches which can be used by a firm as given below:
 Direct recruitment is a process in which recruiting qualified employees from the external
source in order to fill vacant position. In this tools the the information and details of the
job will be posted on the notice board. This method is used for the recruiting of blue and
white collar jobs.
 Direct recruitment is another method where a company can conduct a interview for the
external applicants. For this they required to provide information and job details in the
advertisement tools such as newspapers, magazines, and social media platform.
 There are various external recruitment agencies where a company can contact to the third
party for potential employees. In this method the business unit can sources different types
of employees like skilled, semi-skilled jobs. The external agencies have a record of
various applicants and the different fields (Gwyer, 2010).
 Campus placement is another tools which a company can find out qualified and educated
staff recruit directly from the universities and collages. Most of the educational
institutions are provide placement opportunities for their students through these business
units.
Advantages of internal recruitment:
 It can help to bring new ideas from outside which can provide new ways to perform a
task in better ways.

 It can provide a large pool of applicants which can help to get the skilled and talented
staff for the company.
 There are various external candidates which having a wide range of experience and
knowledge which can increase firm's efficiency (Hoefling, 2012).
Disadvantages of internal recruitment:
 External recruitment is a longer process which consume money and time of a business
organization.
 It required more financial resources for use of advertisement tools and techniques in
order to getting the right people from outside.
Recruitment and selection prcess played a important role in the strategic and business
performance of any business organization. Business strategy term as all the plan and
policy which as to make to regulate the business in a manner so that there is fully
optimum use resources and company get its success and the future growth. Its is a long
term process where company makes its objective, plan the strategy and finally implement
it according to the available resources. Before start up and business the top level
management will set the vision and mission of the company and then they make the
objectives of the company. It is a very important part of business because it the basis of
any business and without this company cant be run, the top management has to make the
strategy very carefully because it incurred cost and time. And they set the wrong
direction then will be incurred the loses and finally lead to the shut down. In context to
the HR recruitment and selection the business strategy is very important because having
the good human resources is the reason for the business growth. So to select the proper
people for the organisation is the more important to implement the business strategy in a
effective manner. Business strategy encourage the leadership to make the the business
plan and and achieve growth in future. Business productivity related to the how the
company effectively and efficiently convert its input into output. The business
productivity shows what time company takes to produce its per unit and at what cost
incurred to produce the item. In this enterprise manage its all resources like human
resources it machine and its raw material to produce the product with more effective
manner so they take lesser time and cost reduction. In this context also the recruitment
and selection is very important because to satisfy its employees will lead to the maximum

production and smooth working. Company has to take regular feedback from the
employees and resolve their problems so they get motivated toward their work. Selection
of recruitment is very important because the employees those who are get appointed
should match the requirement of the company and the enterprise culture. The employees
should have required qualification. After the selection and recruitment the employees
has to be trained. All these aspects will leads to increase the productivity so they produce
more and more units in good quality and according the company standard. Employees are
the valuable resources of the company. Corporate strategy indicates the objectives which
companies try to achieve by its available organisation resources. The enterprise has the
multiple resources like its human resources and finance resources and to control and
oversee these resources business unit has the different different like finance, operations,
marketing and HR department. These department look after the issues from its respective
departments. These strategies gives the direction to the company on what path they have
to go and what they need to do for that. Corporate strategy is different from business
strategy. When the one enterprise is doing another related business them the corporate
strategy has to be develop. In that strategy company as to analysis its competitors, its
product demand and target consumers. If they has these factors available then only he
will start the new business. When the business has new opportunities to expand. The
enterprise will do research in market and see if they has enough resources to start the
new business or not. Then strategy will be plan according to that and for any long term
strategy to implement it human resources is very important because by them only it can
be properly executed. The business unit has to maintain the health relation with the
employees so that they can retain the employees in their organisation for longer period.

The process of recruitment and selection process.
It is essential for a company to make their recruitment and selection process effective which can
help to get skilled workforce for them. The process of recruitment and selection process is
mentioned below:
Stages Activities
Identify Vacancies This is the first stage where the HR department of the company required
that to identifies the current and future requirement and evaluate these
position effectively. Understand and consider firm's strategies goals and
objectives and future changes in the particular industry (Hotho and
Champion, K., 2011).
Develop position
description
This is the second stage of recruitment and selection process in which the
HR manager of the company is to develop interview questions regarding
the vacant position which can help to provide best candidates among pool
of applicants.
Develop recruitment
plan
In this stage, each position required an effective recruitment plan which is
approved by the business organization. It requires a careful analyses and
strategies which can help to attracting best qualified candidates. In this
stage they also required to selection of a suitable advertisement tools
which can help in the providing job details and information and attracting
large number of applicants from outside.
Select search
committee
In this stage the HR manager required to select a group of committee
which can follow their guidelines and make a procedures regarding the
recruitment (Kinicki and et. al., 2014).
Implementation of
recruitment plan
In this stage the company required that to implement their recruitment and
selection plan according to their pre planning which can in choosing the
appropriate candidates for the business unit.
Review applicants This is one of the significant process where the HR department is

shortlisted applicants form large number of pool. In this process they can
conduct written test in order to select most suitable applicants.
Conduct interview The search committee has to decide who conduct the interview and what
procedures they have to followed. In this process the authorized person
can conduct the interview to shortlisted applicants.
Selecting candidates In this process the search committee is responsible to select best person
which they need in order to perform their task effectively.
Finalize recruitment Review the duties and responsibilities of the position and ensure they
were accurately described and reflected in the job description and
interview process (Lam, and Notteboom,2010).
Theories and models of recruitment and selection
There are various theories and approaches which related to the recruitment and selection process
in a business organization. The contemporary model inn this process as given below:
The Competency Approach
The major challenges in the recruitment and selection process is to choose best person
among the pool of applicants for a particular job. Therefore HR manager are required to analyses
and evaluate potential competencies which can help tom perform a particular task effectively.
The HR department is expected that their potential candidate is able to cope up with
organizational change and its roles and responsibilities. This model is help to identify the skills
and capabilities which are required to perform a task rather than the applicants characteristic and
skills like communication and confidence. It is a conceptualisation model which can be used by
various companies like Google and IBM in order to selecting graduated from the universities and
collages.
Recruitment and Selection & Retention theory
On the other hand, Recruitment , hiring and retaining employees need tried and true human
resources methods to prevent terrible hires and high turnover. In the case of small business, they
not having skilled and trained employees. Therefore, such business units are required this models
in order to implementation their HR activities effectively (Levasseur, 2012). This approach
having various components as given below:

Organizational chart: According to this chart, the HR manager of the company analysed
and evaluate the workforce formation which can help in maintain the discipline and effective
control over the organizational activities.
Job description: It refers to the detailed information about the job and its roles and
responsibilities. It can help to identify the desired staff who having the full knowledge about
their job profile.
Recruitment: This approach start with an close 'want ad'. This required a accurate and
appropriate information about a particular job.
A contingency Approach
This approach of recruitment and selection is implies that the business organizational
plan and procedures need to moulded with a particular aspects. This model is based on the
national culture and its impact on the recruitment process. There are various aspects of culture
which required different attributes at the time of selection (Leveson, 2015). It means that the
companies who are hiring or giving posts to different cultural people will be able to set
coordination between them and organizational goals and objectives through implementation of
policies that make up consciousness about cultural difference. Apart from that there are two
basic aspects in order to recruiting the staff for the company which as given below:
Competency based recruitment: This is one of the common approach which are used by
various companies such as IKEA. In this concepts the HR department can make a list about the
qualities and skills which are required to perform a task. The knowledge and experience also can
be included by the company. After this, the applicants write down their qualification and
professional experience which can be consider by the business organization.
Selective recruitment: It is another basis which can be considered by the company for
their recruitment and selection process. The HR department has been set their criteria which is
necessary to perform a particular job.
Identifying and evaluating the relationship between line manager and leader
Line manager played a very important role in the business operations from day to day
management to implementation to HR policies in order to maintain consistent development of
business organization (Morse, Babcock and Murthy, 2014). The linking between line manager
and HR heads of the company is significant. For example, in the company namely M&S they are
using both representative in a way which can increase their productivity and profitability through

coordinate and communicate with each other and solve various issues at the initial stage. In
strategic human resource management also help to use various approaches such as behaviour and
attitude which can be change through motivation and try to change such behavioural in a
effective manner.
There are various functional role and responsibilities such as job satisfaction, motivation,
commitment and other aspects for a particular employees. This shows that not only HR
department but also line managers are very crucial for exchanging the social and professional
relationship with their staff. Apart from that, line mangers and HR representative are also
maintain the communication between higher authorities and the rest of staff of the company
(Nkomo and Kriek, 2011). Their role is to coordinate and mediator between employees and top
management. The main role of line manager is to motivate their employees in order to attain
firms goals and objectives. On the other hand HR manager are required that to communicate with
their employee's and try to resolve their issues which can help to create a sound relationship
between them and it can also provide competitive advantages over its rival companies. For
example, HR department of IKEA is provide all facilities to their employees which can help to
enhance their confidence level. The line manager of the company also use open door policy
which can provide a opportunities to share their ideas with the line manager. It can increase
employee participation the decision making process.
Line managers and HR department has a relationship between them for the administration of the
people or staff of a business organization (Offstein, Morwick and Koskinen, 2010). There are
various function which can be played by both line manager and HR representative as given
below:
Department Staffing: The main function of HR department is to support the staff need
in the business unit. HR and line manager must communicate on regular basis in order to
determine the capabilities and skills which are required for a particular department. In any job
vacancy is required line manager required to communicate with HR department and create and
develop job description for a particular job. During the recruitment process HR can provide
guidelines on how to determine skilled candidates (Rees and Rumbles, 2010). It can help to
enhance their knowledge and also reduced the dependency in the emergency situation. Such kind
of process are avail in the Primark where line manager and HR manager keep in touch and

conduct meeting over a period of time. It can also help to build a strong relationship between
them.
Workforce Strategy: The HR manager are required to analyses the firm long term plan
and strategic goals and objectives. These target and goals should be shared by the line manager
so that they can reviewing projections which are related with the future demands. So that they
can make their plan accordingly. The most important thing is that they are shared a common goal
which required to working together in a team. By working together they can easily identify the
future needs, required competencies for a particular job. They also discussed about the possible
approaches which can be used by the company such as internal or external (Rue, Byars and
Ibrahim, 2012). They also find out the cost effective way of recruitment and selection which can
help to increase profitability of the a business unit. Workforce planning is a strategic decision-
making which required that both line manager and HR manager can make effective strategies
and plan which can fulfil its staffing needs.
Performance Management: It is systematic process of monitoring and reviewing an employees
performance at the workplace. It can help to evaluate and analyses the performance
which can help in appraisal. In this process the role of line manager and HR department both are
essential. Because line manager is the responsible for maintain the performance according to the
firm's standard and try to improve in the near future. On the other hand, HR department is
responsible for the pay and performance based incentives which can not be implemented without
the line managers (Schwalbe, 2015). Therefore, both representative are working together in order
to improve employees performance. There are various companies specially the production
industry which required an effective performance management system in order to maintain their
performance without compromising with the quality which can not be possible without the joint
efforts of line manager and HR representative.
Conflict Resolution: Conflicts at the workplace is natural in any business organisation.
Each and every employees is different in terms of culture, personality working style and nature.
Whenever conflicts is arises, line manager generally acknowledged the issues and suggest to the
HR regarding such conflicts (Smit and et. al., 2011). Therefore, company required that to
provide effective training to their line manager which are capable to handle such situation in a
effective manner. A positive working relationship between the line manger and HR
representative to easily investigate these issues and they can solve such conflict of their own at

the initial stage. Therefore, HR manager is required to provide enough power to the line manager
to seek general issues. So that it can help to save the time of the employees and also increase the
productivity and performance (Wiig, 2012).
Training and development: Business environment is change over a period of time
which need to improvement in the work process and style. In order to meet such changes a
business unit is required to provide training on the regular basis. In training and development
process the cost critical task is to identify training needs. Line manager can help in order to
determining training requirements because they are monitoring and supervise employee's on the
daily basis (William Robinson, 2010). They can provide information and suggest them about the
training. It can help to increase the output and performance of the employee's and also support
their personal and professional development. It can enhance the profitability of the company
which is a common goals for each and every business entity.
CONCLUSION
Recruitment and selection is one of the important task for each and every business
organization. In the toady business environment, it is part of strategic planning of the business.
As per the above mentioned report it has been concluded that the relationship between HR
manager representative and the line manager played a significant role with in a business unit. HR
is a person who hired staff and maintain a good relationship between employees and employer.
Whereas, line manager is a person who having direct relationship with the employees and
manage the daily work of the company. They are working with each other performing their task
such as conflict resolution, performance management, training and development, workforce
strategies and so on. The report also explain the role of line manager and HR department in the
recruitment and selection process which can help to get the talented staff for the company.
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The role of line managers in HR and L&D, 2017. [online]. Available through :
<https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/people/hr/line-managers-factsheet>.
[Accessed on 24th March 2017]