Unit 3: Human Resource Management

Unit Number and
Title
Unit 3 Human Resource Management
Targeted Learning
outcomes
LO1, LO2, LO3 and LO4
Referred Pa
ss
Merit Distinction
Unit Final
Grade
Learning
Outcomes Feedback Grades
awarded
LO 1
LO 2
LO 3
LO 4
Date project marked:
Unit 3
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HNC in Business (KCB) 2018/2019

PROJECT
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
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Introduction
Before describing the essence of Human Resource Management and its functions, it is
useful to understand the meaning of the Human Resource Management (HRM) itself. The
HRM can be a model, a system, a map or one of the several theories (Albrecht and et. al.,
2015). It can be a philosophy for managing people and a complex process and strategy which
is a big part of the business. The HR system and HR philosophies together show to us the
value and guidelines of the whole Human Resource Management. This system is sum of the
HR strategies, which can help to show your direction in your HR activities. HR policies helps
in keeping the rules and HR practices includes the tasks of managing, developing and
relationship managing. It is an organization which covers a lot of activities like resourcing,
recruitment and selection, organization development, learning and development, performance
and reward management and maintaining relations between employees and management and
with HR. The HR is part of the organization that deals with people and managing the
employees working in the organization. It includes developing and supporting staff and
employees. There are various definitions given by people about HRM. Some of them are
Michael Armstrong, Torrington and Hall, Mathis and Jackson, Grimshaw and Rubery etc.
“Human resource management can be defined as a strategic, integrated and coherent
approach to the employment, development and well-being of the people working in
organizations.”. HRM is a basic requirement of economy and organizations as this practice
influences the economic productivity of the company. There are several goals, roles, models
and theories which helps in running of whole system of organization and analyzing HRM
practices.
LO 1
1.1 (P1) Purpose and functions of HRM, nature / scope of strategic HRM, ‘Hard
and Soft HRM
There are two variety of models of the Human Resource Management in a business:
“Soft and Hard” HRM. The soft HRM is people-focused practice and in this employees are
considered as the most important resource in the business. Employees are treated as
individuals and managers take care of their needs and demands. Employees focuses on
providing roles, rewards, training, motivation and appreciation to the subordinates. This helps
in focusing on workforce planning (Analoui, 2017). The soft model build on planning and
regular two-way communication, flatters the organizational structures and democratic
leadership style. Best employees are chosen to work in the organization who have relevant
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skills, good experience and innovative thinking. It is a time consuming process and is
expensive. For example , Google company uses “soft” HRM in practice.
The hard HRM is task-focused practice in which the employees are treated simply as a
resource in the business like machinery and buildings. It emphasizes the strategic
management with a cheap recruitment and selection to reach successful results. In this case
we use minimal communication and short-term changes in staff numbers (Bakker and
Demerouti, 2014). It builds on taller organizational structures, autocratic leadership style and
the costs are enough to recruit and retain staff. For example we pay minimum wage for the
employees. The hard HRM is useful in crisis situations and when the management have
expertise. This leads for quicker decision making, poor employee relation and impact in
motivation. It uses limited delegation, team working and less paying techniques in practice.
The KFC and Unilever are examples of the hard HR user companies. If the question is which
one is better, the “soft or hard” HRM, we can say it depends on the situation of the
organizational and behavior of the employees.
“Strategic Human Resource Management (Strategic HRM or SHRM) is an
approach to the development and implementation of HR strategies. Strategic HRM is a
general notion of how integration is developed between HR and business strategies. It
includes the benefits of taking a longer-term view of where HR should be going and how to
get there, and how coherent and mutually supporting HR strategies should be developed and
implemented. Importantly, it is also about how members of the HR function should adopt a
strategic approach on a day-to-day basis.” It means that they run as a team of the management
with granting the HR practice to support the goals of business strategies on adding value. The
aims of the strategic HRM are to achieve integration, provide a sense of direction in a loud
environment and consent to the type of business strategy by capitalizing the strengths of
human resources.
Therefore, the nature of strategic Human Resource Management is to reach the goals
of the organization through the people, HR strategies and HR policies and practices together.
It is not just about the strategic planning, we need to consider how HR plans works and and
how it affects the business plan.
The HRM is not the same like Personal Management. HR department is the
department of the organization which is a link between management and employees (Cascio,
2015). This department is responsible for performing tasks for employee's development. This
serves the human resource strategy and keep the proper operation of the corporate culture and
the whole organization. There are several functions of HR which are listed below-
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