Human Resource Management Solved Assignment

This assignment is based on a comprehensive study guide for human resource management, covering various topics such as employee relationships, HRM practices, employee retention, and performance management. The study guide includes a checklist to evaluate employee skills, a glossary of terms, and a conclusion that emphasizes the importance of 360-degree appraisal in identifying skill gaps and taking appropriate action to fulfill them.

Strategic Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
A. Business strategy and HR strategy....................................................................................2
B. Issues of vertical alignment and horizontal integration ....................................................3
C. Horizontal integration through HR practices.....................................................................4
D. Performance management and reward..............................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
A. Nature and theoretical perspective of employment relation..............................................8
B. Analysation of the nature of employment relation............................................................9
C. Role of actors in employment relationship......................................................................10
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................15
GLOSSARY .................................................................................................................................16
.......................................................................................................................................................16

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An organisation cannot attain success until they have right set of skill and they retain
them for a significant period of time. Successful company always have satisfied customers but
challenges like globalization and presence of various culture create problem for enterprise. Their
are various organisation who have a post of Chief Talent Officer in the corporation because
keeping right talent in firm provide competitive advantage in market. Their is a general
perception that HR management do not make any direct contribution in proceeding towards
organisational goals but this is perception is completely wrong. If human resource division will
be hire right people in the company then attaining short and long term targets is not possible for
non-fitting candidates. Role of HR and their contribution in success of organisation cannot be
ignored by any enterprise.
INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a concept which is related to managing employees in a
proper way so they can move forward toward attaining set targets. Both private and public sector
organisation understand importance of HR department and this is the prime reason that they try
to resolve problems of their employees on priorly basis (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). In a
recent report, Netflix was considered as among top 5 ''organisation to work'' for while Amazon
got a place in worst 5 ''organisation to work for''. Strategic HR management of both private
company is comply different. NHS is another public sector organisation who provide medical
facilities at affordable price. This report will discuss about business and HR strategy (Jackson,
Schuler and Jiang, 2014). It will also include topic like vertical alignment and horizontal
integration. Rewards and performance management is another subject which will be covered in
this assignment along with employee relation.
TASK 1
Introduction
Every organisation have some objectives which they want to attain in specific period of
time. Various division like HR have to make their strategies according to vision of company
(Cascio, 2018). Vertical alignment is crucial for synchronizing different types of goals.
Horizontal integration can be done by exploring options like best fit (contingency), best practice
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(internal) and RBV (internal and external). Rewards to employees can make a positive impact on
their performance.
A. Business strategy and HR strategy
Their are various companies who understand that they cannot treat human asset like of
other resources. Harvard HRM model also support this thinking and it argues that demand and
stress level of every worker is different. This model mainly focuses on four HR policy areas
which are as follows:
Human resource flows – This areas cover HR activities recruitment, termination,
promotion etc. It is one of the most important work which is done by HR team and it is directly
connected with performance of organisation.
Reward system – Rewards are given to employees so they can get motivation and perform
well (Ulrich and Dulebohn, 2015). At NHS, worker do not get much rewards and this is the
prime reason that hey are not too motivated in their work. But on the other hands, Netflix give
monetary and non-monetary benefits to the employees who perform better than company's
expectation.
Employee influence – A significant area to focus while framing and executing HR
practice is delegation of work, authority and power. Netflix give more freedom to workers
compared to public organisations like NHS.
Work system – This area is related to design of work and various responsibility which
employees get at different position in a team or organisation.
Below are four Cs which every company seek from their employees. Netflix has changed
their long term objectives and instead of streaming live videos, they now want to develop
original content for attaining set objectives. NHS only want to provide better healthcare service
to public by opening more hospital and increasing quality of their service.
Commitment – Organisation seek commitment from workers that they will give their best
for attaining set targets (Galpin, Whitttington and Bell, 2015). Company assure them that all of
their demand will be met if they commit for giving expected presentation. Netflix only hire A
grade employees because they know that they are committed to their work but workers of NHS
lack this kind of commitment. This may be happening because they do not have effective reward
system.
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Congruence – Congruence is about balance. Netflix give freedom to their employees but
they also give them a clear message that if their skills will no longer be needed in the
organisation then they may have to leave irrespective of their experience in the company. NHS
do not have such an aggressive policy but they have successfully maintained a harmony without
compromising compatibility (Reilly and Williams, 2017).
Competence – Enterprises want their employees to use and increase their ability for
achieving company's goal. Netflix select 'A' class talent because it motivate other 'A' class
worker to perform better keep high working standards. NHS also select talented people but not
the best in industry. This organisation sometime fail to reach set target because they know they
do not try to expand their limits which is essential for attaining aggressive aim.
Cost effectiveness – Netflix do not set a limit of expenditure for the employees at the time
of travelling or doing some other activity. They argue that they recruit adults and making rules
for reducing waste of resources is not correct. NHS has given some guidelines for ensuring that
public money is used properly cost of operation is brought down.
B. Issues of vertical alignment and horizontal integration
Management by objective (MBO) is very popular concept in corporate world.
Corporations set some goals for attaining mission of organisation. After this they set goals at
different levels like departmental, team and individual. If every individual will achieve own
target at NHS and Netflix then their team will automatically attain decided goal. If all team will
do their work properly then departmental goals will be attained and this process will ultimately
end achieving mission of the company (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). This vertical alignment is
very important for every company because they because if few individual will fail to meet set
expectation then performance of whole organisation will suffer and they may fail to achieve
organisational goals. MBO can also be seen from different angle i.e. if right talent is present in
company then internal process will get strong and flawless. This will result in better increment in
sale and improve financial condition of Netflix and NHS also.
Objective of performance management
 To review performance of employees by checking how much they learn from experience.
 To get approval of employees on key objectives by through mutual understanding and
find ideas about how to do improvement.
 To support employee in identifying own strength and development areas.
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 To get a feedback from worker about how well they are managed or supervised.
Evaluation of performance
Performance can be evaluated by adopting different method of Performance appraisal
methods like ranking, grading, rating scale or by answering open ended questions (Cascio,
2014). Netflix always evaluate work done by their employees so they can check that can develop
needed skills in their employees or identify that whether employees should be kept in
organisation or not. NHS do not have any effective system relating evaluating performance of
workers.
Suitable ways for evaluating performance of employees
Asking employee to rate own performance and then compare this rating from from the
score which is given by their seniors is an appropriate way for evaluating performance of works.
Their are various macro factors like political condition, technology, legal obligations, changes in
industry etc. which affect performance of workers. These factors should be considered at the
time of checking performance of employees. Micro environment also affect work of a workers.
Customers, suppliers, competitors etc. impact working of employees.
C. Horizontal integration through HR practices
Horizontal integration is related to making sound connection between various
departments of a company. If an organisation want to reach set aim then they have to make sure
that relationship between all the division is fine. Below is best fit contingency theoretical
framework:
HR strategic approach
Life cycle
HR role
1. Start up – At this stage, main work of HR
team is to develop a reward system for good
performance and transfer employees to
different position. The work of HR is very little
at this stage.
2. Growth – At this point, human resource
managers introduce some formal procedures
and start investing in training of workers.
3. Maturity – HR department try to develop
strong employee relations and make a flexible
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system for removing addressing rigidity.
Netflix is a new organisation and their HR strategic approach is very different from above
mentioned approach. They do not try to reduce rigidity in their HR policy at maturity stage, they
give freedom to the workers and do not set any formal rules which is to be followed by every
employee. They believe that they only hire adults so personnels know that attaining goals is more
important then following rules (Theriou and Chatzoglou, 2014). Instead of developing fine
relationship with employees, Netflix has given a clear message to their workers i.e. perform or
perish. It may sound bit harsh but this is part of company's HR strategic approach. HR division
of NHS do follow this approach and they do not make much changes in it.
Their are three types of strategy Best Fit contingency theoretical framework, they are as follows:
Innovation – In this strategy, employees who are creative and have innovative thinking
are needed. Netflix is using this strategy from a long period of time and it is giving them extra
edge over their competitors. They have given freedom to their employees because it is essential
for taking big risk. NHS is a public organisation who do not use this strategy because they do not
like to take big risks.
Quality enhancement – This tactic can only be used by a company if they have
predictable behaviour. If an organisation is adopting this strategy then they will only concentrate
on high quality of work. They would not take much risk like NHS and their commitment towards
organisational goals will be high. Netflix also focus on quality of their content but they do not
suppose to idea of ensuring quality by taking low risk.
Cost reduction – If a company want to work on this strategy then behaviour of employee
should be repetitive. Concentrating on short term issues and tactics is important for reducing cost
of operations. Both, Netflix and NHS, do not follow this strategy.
 The key advantage of best practice is that it never ignore business strategy. All the
policies related to HR are align in way which assist complete organisation in executing
decided strategy. Policies made by following this practice are realistic and they are
according to the current situation. One of the biggest demerit of this practice is that development of employees is not the
priority of this practice. It also do not concentrate on constructing a well-structured
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selection procedure. If recruitment process is not up to mark then both organisation may
fail to attain their objectives.
Best Practice (Internal)
This approach argue that there are few HR activities which can provide extra edge to
every company who in whatever the industry they are operating. Netflix has developed a system
where they do not make rules for their employees and instead ask them to manage things at own
level. This strategy do not get affected by change in external environment. Netflix is applying
this practice by hiring 'A' class employees. They feel that if instead of giving free food or
travelling expenses to employees for motivating them, they should recruit talented people in the
firm so employees can get a favourable and better working environment and learn more things
about their work (Hauff, Alewell and Hansen, 2014). NHS do not have any specific HR strategy
and they have some standard procedure regarding training of employees which they follow for
without considering any external factor.
 Key merit of adopting this approach is that it encourages workers to perform well by
fulfilling demand of workers and setting goals by discussing with them. It ultimately
ensure high commitment from the side of employees. Another advantage of this practice
is that it reduce absenteeism and increase productivity of worker. This approach has various limitations. On one side it argues that team working is
important but on other side it also promote individual performances. These two
statements contradict each other. High commitment management system include different
kind of complexities and need lot of planning.
RBV (Internal and External)
Resource based view (RBV) is an effective and realistic approach. Instead argues that
every company should first check availability of resources then develop policy accordingly.
Their is no doubt that this is realistic approach but this does not means that it is perfect. Netflix
has financial resources and this is why they are able to hire best people from different filed. NHS
have their own resources and they use it accordingly. This kind of practice urges a company to
focus on their internal resources instead of analysing external environment.
 Advantage of this practice is that assist HR managers is understanding the reason behind
why resources are scare and valuable. Another key merit of this approach is that provide
uniqueness to an organisation by managing resources in proper way.
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 Prime limitation of this practice is that it is inseparable from external environment of
company. If a company will keep focus on internal areas and try to understand a
particular condition then it is unrealistic. If they want to understand a situation then they
have to consider external environment.
D. Performance management and reward
Developing a perform management system is important for every enterprise because it
assist them in improving quality of their workforce and gain desired results. Identifying training
needs of employees and analysing their strengths and weaknesses are crucial part of performance
management (Arnaboldi, Lapsley and Steccolini, 2015). An effective system always involve high
contribution from the side of top level management. Objectives of the system are clear,
achievable and acceptable. It fits in culture of organisation and self assessment schemes also
become its part.
360 degree Feedback is an effective method for measuring performance of an individual.
In this method, an organisation ask questions from co-workers, subordinates and supervisor of an
employee in order to get review about him/her. Self evaluation is integral part of this 360 degree
feedback. This method of reviewing performance of employees is basically used at promotion of
the employees. Big organisation also used this method when they want to evaluate the learning
and performance of an employees after he/she completed his/her training.
Reward management
Their are basically two areas which are needed to be evaluated for deciding which
employee should get how much reward. One is job evaluation and another is all the the other
factors which are not directly connected to the job responsibilities of workers. Their are three
kind of pay, basic, performance and indirect. Basic is the agreed amount between employer and
employee which worker will definitely get. Performance pay is dependent of the work done by
worker (Khamooshi and Golafshani, 2014). If employees have performed better than the
expectation of management then he/she will get more financial and non-financial reward and
vice-a-versa.
Herzberg's two factor theory of motivation
This theory has two factors, hygiene and motivational. Prior one concentrate on reducing
dissatisfaction among the employees. It can be done by having an appropriate salary structure,
provide fringe benefits, assure job security etc. This theory argue that giving better physical
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condition and fringe benefits will not motivate worker to perform better. If employer want to
motivate someone then he/she has to make sure that they adopt different strategy i.e. try to
satisfy workers (Ozguner and Ozguner, 2014). This work can only be done if psychological
needs of workers are met. Recognition, giving a sense of achievement, growth opportunities etc.
are some of the factor which motivate employees to do better.
Conclusion and Recommendation
At the end, it can be concluded that business and HR strategy should not stand against
each other if a company, whether it is NGO or private firm, want to attain their goal. Vertical
alignment is essential for keeping organisation goal and individual goals on same page.
Horizontal integration can be done by following practices like Best Fit, Best practice (internal) or
RBV (internal and external). 360 degree feedback is an appropriate method for evaluating
performance of workers. Rewards are not given to employees only on the basis of how
effectively they followed their job responsibilities. Other work which is done by workers should
be considered at the time of giving them reward.
TASK 2
Introduction
Employees relation is a concept which is focuses on keeping better relationship between
workers and employers (Persson and Wasieleski, 2015). This task will discuss about nature and
theory of employment relation like unitarism, pluralism and marxism. Role of actors like labour
union and employer will be included in this task.
A. Nature and theoretical perspective of employment relation
An organisation cannot treat their employees like any other asset. They have emotions
and they are one the who execute plans which are made by top level management.
Unitarism – This perspective was developed by Alan Fox in 1960s. According to him,
interest of employer and workers are same and because of this, conflict between them should not
arise. He argued then dispute in the organisation happen because of miscommunication and
personal problems of personnels. This perspective also gave an important argument i.e. company
should have only one authority, management. He do not support the idea of trade union and
consider them as trouble maker.
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Pluralism – This perspective give more importance to employees. It argues that every
organisation is nothing but integration of various groups (Bratton and Gold, 2017). These groups
have their own goals and their interest varies. They accept that trade unions are important for
raise the issues of employees and conflict cannot be avoided in the organisation when because
thinking of every person differ. Both NHS and Netflix consider this perspective very important
and that is why they their HR division try to provide to provide fair opportunity to the employees
so they can represent themselves. Netflix understand that trade union is an old concept and their
HR policies are very clear. It save them from various of hurdles and unnecessary problems.
Management is responsible for ensuring that interest of every group is taken in account at the
time of making any policy. Developing a mechanisms is essential for addressing conflicts, it can
be done through collective bargaining.
Marxism – The perspective of Marx is very different from above two. He argues that
whatever conflicts happen in the organisation is because there is a difference between classes.
Employer belong to high class (capitalists) and employees are seen as proletariat (Festing and
Schäfer, 2014). He does not support a capitalist system where employees do not have any control
on the good which they are producing. Mindless repetition of worker and competing against each
other are another problems which was identifies by Marx. An important thing which was missing
in unitarism and pluralism perspective is that Marxism approach cover wider area i.e. whole
society. It does not talk about one company or industry, it relates employee relationship with
complete society.
B. Analysation of the nature of employment relation
Employee relation is a growing concept and even small companies has started focusing
on creating better relationship with employees. Enterprises like Netflix give too much freedom to
their employees so they do not feel any kind of burden and chances of dispute between worker
and employer do down. They set targets of their employees by concerning every aspect of their
job with them. They also provide them fair chance to speak about their problems and do make
any major decision without involving them.
Analysation of theoretical perspective of employee relation
 Unitarism is an old approach and not it is not used in business world. Organisation like
school and college are still running on this perspective. Netflix do not care about trade
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unions and involve employees in the process of decision making. They cannot use this
approach because they understand that goals of company and employees differs.
 Marxism perspective is completely irrelevant in today's business environment. This is
right that top level management of company hold most of the power but this does not
mean that employees are considered and treated as labour. Bring status and class is
irrelevant in for private organisation like Netflix and NGOs also.
 Pluralism is most popular and acceptable perspective. It talks about various groups
which are formed in an organisation along with their goals and interest (Zhang, Di Fan
and Zhu, 2014). Netflix understand that objectives of company and their employees
cannot be same so they try to make a system where if worker will attain organisation aim
then their individual goals will automatically get achieved. They allow employees to
make a group and come with a problem in front of management because they understand
the conflicts cannot be avoided. NHS also run on this perspective, they understand that
they have to delegate some authorities to the employees because running such a big
organisation is not possible by keeping all the power in the hand of management.
C. Role of actors in employment relationship
Maintaining fine relationship between two sides is not an easy task and many people have
to play their part right way in order to make sure that relationship between employer and
employee do not suffer (Qualities in a Professional for Better Relationship with Co Workers,
2018). The concept of employee relation is successful because various entities are involved in it.
Below are few actor and their role in employee relation:
Labour unions – Although number and importance of labour union has gone down in past
few decades but they are still considered as a significant factor at the time of raising issues of
employee in particular sector. They make a positive pressure on employer and tell the all the
problem which worker are facing.
Staff representative – In some companies, employer do not involve employees at the time
of making policies. This means that workers do not get power of negotiation. The key role of this
actor is to communicate the ideas of employees to the top level management. If employer want to
communicate any message among worker then they deliver it to staff representative. They work
as a bridge between both sides (Tangthong, Trimetsoontorn and Rojniruntikul, 2014).
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Owners' representative – In organisation like Netflix and NHS, top level management
cannot talk with employees regarding their problems so they appoint a representative for
resolving all the issues which are present at ground level and faced by workers. They role is
important in reducing most of the conflicts which happen in the organisation.
Labour department – This division make rules for ensuring that both employee and
employer get equal rights. Regulation made by them remove various kind of confusions which
can arise in an organisation.
Labour tribunal – Employee relation concentrate on improving tuning between worker
and employer (Karanges and et. al., 2015). But someone they fail to remove their differences and
at this time they knock the door of labour tribunal so the matter can be sort out in short period of
time and do not get stretched. Labour tribunal try to resolve a problems by taking assistance of
law. Their role is significant in the process of resolving dispute because their decision should be
followed by both sides.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
From the above report, it can be concluded that if HR strategy does not align with
business strategy then company cannot attain their goals. One can say that if organisation should
develop a system where if organisation goals are achieved then individual targets should get met.
This vertical alignment is essential at the time of working on a particular project. Performance
management has various objectives but its main aim is to find find that whether employee has
attained set objective or not. Horizontal integration can be done through different HR practice
like Best fit, best practice and RBV. Motivating employees is an integral part of reward
management. Their are three theoretical perspective of employment relation, unitarism, pluralism
and marxism. Pluralism is used most relevant and popular in this business era. Role of various
actors differ but all of them are important for assuring better relation between workers and
management of company.
For Netflix, it is recommended that they should carry on their aggressive and new
practice but at the same time they should not ignore basic things relating to HR like resolving
problems of employees at the the point of its generation. They are giving enough freedom to
workers but they should monitor that whether workers are assuring that they optimum utilisation
of available resources or not. NHS should make few necessary changes in their HR policies and
practice. They should make changes in their recruitment procedure so they can hire best people
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in the organisation. If quality of workforce will start improving then they do not need to give any
extra motivation to their employees because they will be working in an environment where every
person is ready to accept challenges and attain aggressive goals.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Arnaboldi, M., Lapsley, I. and Steccolini, I., 2015. Performance management in the public
sector: The ultimate challenge. Financial Accountability & Management. 31(1). pp.1-
22.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Cascio, W.F., 2014. Leveraging employer branding, performance management and human
resource development to enhance employee retention.
Festing, M. and Schäfer, L., 2014. Generational challenges to talent management: A framework
for talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective. Journal of World
Business. 49(2). pp.262-271.
Galpin, T., Whitttington, J.L. and Bell, G., 2015. Is your sustainability strategy sustainable?
Creating a culture of sustainability. Corporate Governance. 15(1). pp.1-17.
Hauff, S., Alewell, D. and Hansen, N.K., 2014. HRM systems between control and commitment:
Occurrence, characteristics and effects on HRM outcomes and firm
performance. Human Resource Management Journal. 24(4). pp.424-441.
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human
resource management. The Academy of Management Annals. 8(1). pp.1-56.
Karanges, E. and et. al., 2015. The influence of internal communication on employee
engagement: A pilot study. Public Relations Review. 41(1). pp.129-131.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Khamooshi, H. and Golafshani, H., 2014. EDM: Earned Duration Management, a new approach
to schedule performance management and measurement. International Journal of
Project Management. 32(6). pp.1019-1041.
N. Theriou, G. and Chatzoglou, P., 2014. The impact of best HRM practices on performance–
identifying enabling factors. Employee Relations. 36(5). pp.535-561.
Ozguner, Z. and Ozguner, M., 2014. A managerial point of view on the relationship between of
Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's dual factor theory. International Journal of
Business and Social Science. 5(7).
Persson, S. and Wasieleski, D., 2015. The seasons of the psychological contract: Overcoming
the silent transformations of the employer–employee relationship. Human Resource
Management Review. 25(4). pp.368-383.
Reilly, P. and Williams, T., 2017. How to get best value from HR: The shared services option.
Routledge.
Tangthong, S., Trimetsoontorn, J. and Rojniruntikul, N., 2014. HRM Practices and Employee
Retention in Thailand--A Literature Review. International Journal of Trade, Economics
and Finance. 5(2). p.162.
Ulrich, D. and Dulebohn, J.H., 2015. Are we there yet? What's next for HR?. Human Resource
Management Review. 25(2). pp.188-204.
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Zhang, M., Di Fan, D. and Zhu, C.J., 2014. High-performance work systems, corporate social
performance and employee outcomes: Exploring the missing links. Journal of Business
Ethics. 120(3). pp.423-435.
Online
Qualities in a Professional for Better Relationship with Co Workers. 2018. [Online]. Available
through<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/donts-for-healthy-employee-
relationship.htm>.
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APPENDIX
Checklist
Evaluate the employee skill.
Particulates Strongly
agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
disagree
NA
Set their standard skills ✔
Assure their work quality ✔
Employees communication skill ✔
Decision making ability ✔
Technical skills ✔
Conceptual skills ✔
Learning ability ✔
Conclusion: Through 360 degree appraisal managers evaluate employees skills and find out the
gap between desire and actual skill set. HR manager take appropriate action to full fill these gap.
In this above example seven question are selected to analysis individual ability.
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GLOSSARY
Negotiation – discussion aim at reaching an argument
Urges – try earnestly or a strong desire
Recruit – a person newly listed in present workforce
Perspective – a particular attitude toward a way of regarding something
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