Strategic HRM and Leadership Analysis: A Case Study of Morrisons

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and leadership within Morrisons, a major retail organization in the United Kingdom. The report begins by defining HRM and its core functions, including workforce management, acquisition, and optimization. It then delves into various HRM models, such as the Harvard Analytical Framework, the Matching Model, and the 5 P model, with a particular emphasis on the 5 P model's suitability for Morrisons. The report explores how Morrisons can leverage the 5 P model to improve its HRM processes. Furthermore, it examines key HR functions in relation to strategic HRM initiatives, including recruitment, job analysis and design, training and development, and compensation and employee benefits. The report also evaluates HRM software programs and identifies the characteristics of effective leaders. Overall, the report provides valuable insights into how Morrisons can optimize its HRM strategies to enhance employee performance and achieve its organizational objectives.

MANAGING HUMAN
CAPITAL AND
LEADERSHIP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Relevant Human Resource Models and analysing the approach of the company to management
of human resources......................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Human resource functions in relation to strategic human resource initiatives............................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
HRM Software programs.............................................................................................................9
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................11
Characteristics of effective leaders............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource can be defined as a function within an organization that helps in
managing and dealing with workforce of the company for the development of the organization
(Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018). It is important for each and every organization to manage and
maintain their human capital by acquiring, managing, training as well as retaining employees so
that they can effectively participate within all the organizational processes. In simple words it
can be fined as upgrading existing employees skills and knowledge such that their overall
performance can be improved is called human resource management. Human resource
department within an organization focuses on three main categories which are: workforce
management, acquisition and workforce optimization. This assignment will lay emphasis on
different kind of HRM models, analyse approaches used by the company in order to manage
their human resource, various human resource functions in relation to strategic human resource
initiatives, evaluate various kind of HRM software programs and lastly effectiveness of
characteristics of leader will be explained. Organization that will be focused within this
assignment is Morrisons which is a retail organization with largest chain of supermarket in
united kingdom.
TASK 1
Relevant Human Resource Models and analysing the approach of the company to management
of human resources
Human resources models consists of various human resource activities which help in
managing the human resources effectively. When human resource activities are discharged
effectively it will help in improving the performance of the employees in an organisation.
Human resource models provides the proper framework for studying and managing human
resources in an organisation. HR. models also provides the characterisation of HRM which helps
in establishing effective human resource relationships in Morrison. There are various HRM
models which can be used by Morrison for improving its human resource practice are as follows:
Harvard Analytical Framework: This HR model consists of 6 components which starts from
lift with stakeholders interest which may include management, shareholders, government,
employees, etc. Stakeholders interests defines the HR. policies. Within the same time it is the
situational factors which have influence on stakeholders interest. Situational factors like unions,
workforce, shareholders etc. But situational factors and stakeholders of the organisation help in
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developing the HR policies which form the core HR activities of the organisation such as
recruitment, selection, staffing, training and reward systems in an organisation (Guest, 2017). If
HR. policies are formed well it results in the positive outcome for Human Resource
Management. The Outcomes of HRM can lead to the long term consequences for the
organisation and can result in the profitability of the business. Harvard framework takes more
holistic approaches to human resource which includes various levels of outcome as shown
below:
Illustration 1: The Harvard Framework for HRM
(Source: 5 Human Resources Models Every HR Practitioner Should Know. 2019)
Matching Model: This model was developed by Tichy, Fombrun and Devanna in Michigan
school. This model of HRM mainly focuses on the four functions and interrelatedness between
them. Four functions of this model are selection, appraisal, development and rewards (5 Human
Resources Models Every HR Practitioner Should Know, 2019). These four sections of this model
are considered as most common components of HRM which contributes towards the
organisational effectiveness. This model indicates that HR system as well as organisational
structure should be managed in such a way that it is appropriate with the strategy of the
organisation.
5 P model: Five P model was developed by Dr. Mildred, Dr. Leslie and Chris White which is a
strategic management tool which aligns five variable such as Purpose, Policies, Processes,
People and Performance with the organisation and its operations.
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1. Purpose: Purpose includes all the elements which provides the intention, why company is
running a business. It make the terms clear for the people for what purpose efforts to be made.
Purpose of business may include organisation's vision, mission, goals and objectives and
strategies as well. This help in making the business process easy for the organisation as well as
people working in the organisation.
2. Policies: Policies provides the guidelines for the actions to be performed by the people of
company which is related to business issues and for the development of human resource
practices and programs which are based on strategic needs (5 p's of HRM, 2019). In HR. policies
philosophies, principles or assumptions which guides the organisation and its business which is
based on the variable such as business ethic and organisational culture.
3. Process: process is shaped by HR policies which consists of coordinated efforts from human
resource in order to initiate as well as managing the organisational change efforts which is
prompted by the strategic needs of business. Process represents the company structure, rules,
internal system and procedure which can be used by the organisation in order to produce goods
and services.
4. People: People form the important component of a firm, people, groups or team perform their
jobs in company as per thee principles and processes of the organisation in order to achieve
goals.
5. Performance: Performance consists of performance metrics, results measures which can be
used or supported for decision makings.
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Out of these three model the best options for managing the human resources is 5 P's
model as it is most suitable model for Morrison, which can help in smooth functioning of
business and can help in achieving its objectives (Kulkarni, 2019). This model can be adopted in
all the levels of the organisation and is also suitable as per the size and structure of the enterprise.
Most importantly 5 P's model can be applied for various leadership and management concepts,
theories and tools used by Morrison. This model does not become out as per the changing and
dynamic nature of business and can be used within the organisation for long term. 5 P model can
shape the process of the business as follows:
For Purpose:
 Identify the SWOT, mission goals, objectives, strategies, etc
 Developing core leadership competencies
For Policies:
 Using a team in order to develop a core values of the company
For Process:
 List all the processes of the organisation.
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Illustration 2: 5 P Model
(Source: 5 p's of HRM. 2019 )

 Documentation of all the processes by using flowcharts, check lists process maps etc.
For People:
 Determining the extent to which people are empowered with roles and responsibilities
and team are placed in the organisation.
 Providing directions to teams.
 Identifying training needs.
For Performance:
 Establishing KPI's
 Setting up metric systems based on targets for improvements.
 Tracking KPI's periodically.
So this model is model should be the key approach of Morrison in managing human-resources.
TASK 2
Human resource functions in relation to strategic human resource initiatives
Human resource plays a vital role in success of a business as they are the one who work
closely with the management team in order to ensure the efficiency of the workforce within the
company. Human resource department is mainly responsible for Hiring or recruiting employees,
train workforce, maintain relationship between employees and rest of the workforce, interpret
employment laws, fire employees and various other function which helps in ensuring smooth and
successful running of an organization in an efficient manner (Amarakoon, Weerawardena and
Verreynne, 2018). HR functions mainly depend upon company to company as per their working.
Functions of HR department in Morrisons Organization are discussed below:
Hiring and recruiting: One of the main function of human resource is to hire and recruit
employees or candidates within the organization. HR department recruits, interviews, does
screening and based on this select final qualified candidates for the job position that is open.
Skills assessment test, personality test, knowledge test etc. are done in order to select correct
candidate for the company.
Hiring and recruitment process of Morrisons uses Sonru which is an automated video
interview where pre recorded interview questions are asked. All the candidates need to go
through all those steps of complete Sonru process (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Farndale, 2018). It
helps in reducing number of applicants that have applied for the job position. It is quite an
effective process where each candidate goes through 10 minutes of video screening and after
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than candidates are selected for the interview. All the selected candidates are then called for final
recruitment process. When this complete process is completed only few candidates are selected
for the open job position. This way they have helped them to achieve one of the strategic HR
initiatives which is to drive into automation. With the help of automatic video interview they can
easily select candidates for final process.
Job analysis and design: Another function of human resource department is job analysis and
design. In this nature of the job is described for example qualifications, knowledge, skills, work
experience etc. required for the job position (Morgeson, Brannick and Levine, 2019). It is one of
the most important process as only on this basis right candidates will be applying for the job
position. In other words complete job analysis of the open position is done so that on the basis of
that analysis job position opening designing of the job will be done which includes outlining of
duties, tasks, responsibilities into a single unit of work in order to achieve a certain goal. In
Morrisons as well before positing a job vacancy job analysis and design is done where all the
requirements of the job are specified and analysed and based on those required job is designed
and then a vacancy is posted for that job. This helps them in specifying all the requirements that
are required for the vacancy so that only those individuals who have those qualifications, skills,
knowledge etc. can only apply for the job post and it becomes much more easier for the company
to segregate candidates for the interview (Kidwell, Eddleston and Kellermanns, 2018).
Training and development:
Training and development is another important part of an organization. This training and
department is handled by human resource department. HR Department conducts training
program for new employees as well as to the existing employees so that they can be trained to
fulfil their job responsibilities in a way better manner as well as can understand their duties that
they need to fulfil. Human resource department also works by interacting with other department
managers so that they can understand all kind of training needs that are required by the
employees . Based on those needs they arrange training programs for the employees. Sometimes
HR department also arrange training programs from third party for the employees based on their
budget and time. Other than this human resource department arranges various kinds of activities
for development of employees or any other kind of skills development activities or training
programs for the growth and development of their employees (Bailey and et.al., 2018). Main
reason for these training and development program is to prepare their employees for higher
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responsibilities that they might get in future by developing new skills within them. Morrisons
also provide 15 days training program to their employees so that they can get prepared for future
responsibilities. Organizations can take initiatives such as to introduce different crash coerces to
their employees for their overall development.
Handling compensation and employee benefits: Human resource department are responsible
for all kind of Employee compensation and benefits. Their main role is to handle all kind of
payroll, awards and other benefits that an employees should get. Pension or any other kind of
compensation that an employee should get are also paid by the HR department. An organization
also provide many other kind of benefits such as health insurance, travelling allowance etc. All
such type of benefits are maintained by the HR. Many companies provide their employees with
leave benefits such as paid leaves, planned leaves, casual leaves etc. Human resource department
manages all such type of benefits and compensation that are provided to the workers and
employees (Coordinators, 2018). Morrisons provide various kinds of benefits to their employees
such as they provide discount coupons to their employees, provide different kind of holidays to
their employees etc. HR department can take an initiative to switch they system to cloud based
system so that it becomes easy for them to manage and maintain all kind of benefits that they
provide to their employees. All HR departments should focus on all kind of basic employee
benefits such as: basic pay, recognition, medical benefits, variable pay etc. For maintaining and
providing such benefits they maintain all kinds of employee records which help them in
monitoring employees performance, working hours, history etc.
Employee and labour relations: Another primary function of human resource department is
maintain and manage relation among employees. Not only this their primary responsibility is to
align organizations and employees needs together. It is required to be done so that in future any
kind of union or non-union issue or sexual harassment, discrimination etc. kind of issue does not
arise and if it arises the it can be resolved quite easily. It is the primary responsibility of HR
department to maintain and update all the compliance, policies, rules and regulations in order to
avoid such kind of issues within employees. All the employees within the organization are
always encouraged to contact human resource department in case they have any kind of query or
if they feel tat they are being treated differently or if they want to discuss or resolve any other
issue that they are facing within the workplace (Meyer and Xin, 2018). Morrisons have a
separate employee relationship department within HR department which focuses on all such kind
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of issues and also focus on maintaining employees needs with respect to organizations needs.
They can also take an initiative to update their system in such a way that employees can directly
put a grievance or a message within the system so that their issues directly reach to the human
resource department and inform then about their issue or any other complain that they want to
share and want to be resolved. This will also help them to reduce employee turnover and
maintain their employees best performance.
Legal responsibilities and policy formulation: Another function of human resource department
is to manage, enforce, and interpret labour and employment laws within their departments. This
helps the organization to maintain equal employment opportunities, equal benefits and wages,
fair labour standards, fair working hours and responsibilities etc. This will also help them to
resolve any kind of legal issues that arises within the organizations and if any kind of legal action
is required to be taken then it can can done easily (Hewett and et.al., 2018). It is one of the main
responsibility of human resource is to maintain procedures and policy of the organizations as
well as explain all of those policies to the new employees so that conflicts and issues within the
employees can be reduced. These policies include all kind of guidelines such as performance
appraisal guidelines, code of conduct manual, employee distribution handbook etc. Morrison
have their own set of policies such as procedure policy, code of conduct manual etc. These
policies help them to maintain working environment within their organizations. All the new
employees are given a brief about these policies at the starting of their training period itself. So
that any kind of bullying, unprofessional behaviour can be reduced or removed. Successful
development of policies and procedures helps in maintaining decipline and professionalism
within the organization.
Risk management: Another function of HR department is risk management, HR department
have a separate human resource risk management team whose main function is to identify risk
that can be a threat to the company (Li and et.al., 2018). It is the primary responsibility of the HR
risk management team to keep an eye on all the ongoing processes and identify any kind of risk
that can become a threat for the company later on. This also helps in providing a safe and healthy
working environment for all the employees, workers, customers as well as to clients. They
should also focus on safety and health administration so that a hazard free working environment
can be maintained. It is important for all the organizations to maintain a healthy environment not
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only physically but mentally as well for the welfare of the employees as well as for the company
themselves.
Performance improvement plans: Human resource department most of the time focus and
work on performance improvement plans for the employees. They need to design and update
written proposals in order to improve employees work as well as improve their work as per the
expectation level of the company. Performance improvement plan designed by the HR
department is needed to be implemented within a certain time period in order to achieve
companies desired goals and objectives (Stewart and Brown, 2019).
Recommendations
So from the above discussion it is clear that human resource department plays a vital and
crucial role in proper and successful running of an organization. So here are few
recommendation that can help the organization to improve these functions in a better way, such
as: they can focus on improving their HRM software and try to switch to a cloud based software
so that they can easily maintain employees records, benefits, their policies, salary structure etc.
They should also try to organize various activities so that employees can improve their skills and
boost their knowledge.
TASK 3
HRM Software programs.
Every organisation needs to manage their human resources it is the human resource
which is responsible for the success and failure of the business of the organisation. As Morrison
is a huge organisation and managing employees is quite difficult task but by using a suitable HR
Software program can help the organisation in managing their human resource in an effective
way and can minimise the challenges related to human resources (Niazi and et.al., 2016). There
are various HR. software programs which can be used by Morrison some of them are mentioned
below:
Gusto: Gusto is a software solution for HR. functions like pay rolls, compensation and benefits,
risk management, training and development plans, etc. This software has been mainly
appreciated for many additional features which companies can not do like Automated Tax
Filings, unlimited pay rolls, multiple rate and pay schedules, Tax Form changes or updates and
the Time-off management. So this software can be used by the organisation in order to manage
their human resources.
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BumbooHR: It is the online human resource software which can be used by large and small
sized businesses, this software offers single system for managing all employee and manages the
data related to the human resources. This software program can be used for building centralised
database for employee profile which can be accessed by anyone in the organisation. With this
software huge amount of information of employees can be managed and details about the salary
and benefits and compensation, important documents can be stored, time off and training
schedules. This software allows the HR Manager to customise the fields in order to record the
information which is unique for the company.
NGA Preceda: It is a cloud base software program which can be used by the HR. Managers for
managing the functions which are performed by the HR managers to manage human resource.
Whether an organisation has 1000 employees or 100,000 employees, NGA Preceda offers a user
friendly and scalable solution which will help in managing the staff of the organisation. This
software helps managing the various business functions in the field of data base, payrolls and
administering the diverse workforce of the company in an effective manner (Kavanagh and
Johnson, 2017). This software provides highly automated and efficient process which supports
the key management decisions of the organisation.
All the above mentioned software can be used by Morrison for managing their HR.
functions and human resource but as per the nature of business that Morrison is in, the suitable
software is Gusto. Based on the HR. functions mentioned above this software covers all the
aspects. In addition there are additional features with software which can make function of
managing human resource easy (Niazi and et.al., 2016). It cover the fields like pay rolls, Training
and development schedules, benefits and compensation, etc. Also, Gusto has got the payroll
feature which simplifies the complex laws and regulations for employee benefits, recruiting and
reward systems so, this software can prove beneficial for Morrison in managing human-
resources.
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TASK 4
Characteristics of effective leaders
Leaders will be innovative so that it will help in using software that will be implemented
in Morrison Company. Communication also plays an important role in the company that will
help in resolving issues in using different software. Leader must be confidence in using different
software for the company. As during recruitment process also recruiter must have proper
knowledge that is to be asked to the candidate while selecting it for particular position in
Morrison. Leader must be creative so that it will be capable of understanding policies and
procedures that can be implemented (Solansky and McIver, 2018). This will help in bringing
changes in the company as for operating software leader must have proper knowledge of it.
Without proper knowledge it cannot be able operate software and that will lead to disturb
operations of the company. Before implementation of new software leader have to take opinion
from the employees so that it will facilitate them to use that software easily. It must have ability
to inspire employee to do work effectively and efficiently.
Leader will be commitment holder as it will take responsibility of completing every task that
will not be done by its subordinates. Software implementation will be useful for the company as
it makes process of HR easy. As payroll software is being used in Morrison it is not necessary
that every leader is know how to operate it in the company. There are many other software that is
being used in the company such as Human Resource Information System. Leaders must have
knowledge of using this type of software (Antonakis and Day, eds., 2017).They must have
positive attitude towards their work that will lead to success in future course of action. These
characteristics helps in becoming a good leader in future course of action. Therefore,
implementation of software will lead to increase knowledge of leader.
Transformational model states that changes will be necessary for organization as it helps in
making innovative leader in the company. This will help in enhancing for the future course of
action. This model emphasize on changes in the Morrison that will lead to increase efficiency of
workers. This will help in bringing changes for the future course of action that will be benefitted
for the company (Leithwood and Azah, 2016). As this model bringing more flexibility in the
company and operations of the company is becoming smooth. This will lead to increase in
various factors that will affect implementation of software in Morrison. Therefore, this will lead
to create changes that will be more emphasize on changing policies and procedures. This will
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reduce using old technology as new technology will help in bringing transparency in work. This
will provide useful information to the users that will create sense of belonging among
employees. This will help in creating more valuable in the company as it will bring changes that
will be useful for creating changes in the Morrison. This will help in changing many facilities
that is being provided into the company. Therefore, this model will lead to bring more
opportunities and growth for future.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that managing human resource is vital task for
the organisation and company can use various HRM models which can help in managing the
human resources in the organisation. Also, there are number of human-resource functions which
are to be performed in the organisation which can be managed by strategic human resources
initiatives. Present report also concludes that based on the HR. functions a company should
choose their HR. software program according which can help in managing the functions related
to human resource. It can also be concluded that in order to manage HR. functions a leader
should posses the characteristics of effective leader.
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Johnson, R. D., Lukaszewski, K. M. and Stone, D. L., 2016. The Evolution of the Field of
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