Human Resource Management and Leadership Report: PAMA Supermarket

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management and leadership within PAMA Supermarket, a prominent shopping village in Malta. It begins by exploring various HRM models, including the Standard Casual Model and the HR Value Chain, and how PAMA utilizes them. The report then delves into critical HR functions such as recruitment and selection, human resource development, motivation strategies, and performance management, highlighting their strategic importance. Furthermore, it examines the role of HRM software programs and their benefits for the organization. Finally, the report discusses the characteristics of effective leadership. The report provides a detailed overview of the organization's approach to managing its human capital and fostering effective leadership.

Managing Human Capital
&
Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
HRM Models and approach of company to the management of human resources.....................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Critical discussion of organisation HR functions........................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
HRM Software programs and their benefits................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
Characteristics of effective leaders............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management is the set of principles relating to the functions of planning, organizing,
directing and controlling within organisation. It is often means the development and
manipulation of financial resources, human resources, natural resources and technical resources.
Human resource management is the key resources of the organisation (Leroy and et.al., 2018). It
is the strategic approach to the effective management of people in the company so that they
could aid to gain competitive advantages. Leadership is another key aspect of the organisation as
it is the action of leading group of people or an organisation. Management within organisation
used to manage human capital and leadership in a strategic way.
In this present report, PAMA supermarket is being chosen for assessment. It is one of the
most popular supermarket in Malta. It has become a shopping village and it has become
landmark in central Malta. There are more than 30 outlets in PAMA supermarket with 500 sqm
of area (About PAMA Supermarket, 2019). This present report will discuss the HRM models and
approaches to manage the human resources within organisation. Furthermore, it also discusses
the various HR functions in relation to strategic human resource initiatives and number of HR
software programmes that is beneficial for the company. At last, it will discuss the characteristics
of effective leadership within organisation.
TASK 1
HRM Models and approach of company to the management of human resources
Human resource is the crucial part within the whole organization and it needs to be
managed properly and efficiently. For managing the human capital or the manpower of the
company the company uses many model. A human resource management model is a framework
or tool which is used in managing the human resource and all the related aspects to the human
resource (Lapiņa, Maurāne and Stariņeca, 2014). Every individual is different in thinking and
perceiving the different situations. Even two person perceives the same situation in different
ways. So management of the human resource is of very much importance. For this the company
uses various kinds of models. These different types of models for managing the human resources
used by PAMA supermarkets are as follows-
The Standard Casual Model of HRM- this is a type of model which starts with the overall
strategy of the business and by following the whole HR process ends to improved financial
performance. This model proposes that HR activities must be aligned with the strategy of the

company which works in the direction of improving performance of the company and achieving
overall objective of the firm (Paauwe and Boon, 2018). This model follows a complete process
through which the end results that is the accomplishment of the objective is achieved. It starts wit
formulating strategy, then making HR strategy and then applying those strategy in order to
increase the financial performance of the company.
HR Value Chain- this model is developed by Paauwe and Richardson in the year 1997. This
model suggest that everything which is done in the HRM can be divided into two groups or
categories which are human resource management activities and the human resource
management outcomes.
The HRM activities includes all the day- to- day activities which the HR department
performs. These involves activities such as recruitment, training, development, performance
appraisal, selection, compensation, grievance handling and many other similar activities. On the
contrary the HRM outcomes are defined as the end results in whose direction the work or the
HRM activities are conducted or carried. These are the final result that is the goal or the
objective which the company intends to achieve or accomplish (Arshad, Azhar and Khawaja,
2014). For example the employees recruitment is an activity but it is conducted with the aim to
achieve the objective of keeping all the vacancies of the company filled. The HRM outcomes
involves motivation of employees, earning profits, increasing sales, maintaining employee
satisfaction, and many more other goals and the objectives.
The model used by the PAMA supermarket for managing the employees is standard
casual model. This is because of the reason that this model ensures that all the organizational as
well as the personal goals of the team members or the individuals are accomplished and
achieved.
TASK 2
Critical discussion of organisation HR functions.
Human resource department is one of the most important department within organization.
Organisations either big or small needs effective human resource management within
organisation as it allows strategic decisions for the company (Noe and et.al., 2017). Human
resource could help in business good team of working professionals in order to achieve the desire
goals and objectives of the company. The main purpose of human resource management is to

focus mainly in recruitment and providing guidelines to the employees working in the
organisation.
Human resource management plays a crucial role in developing strategies for the
company along with handling the employee-centered activities of the company. The human
resource of PAMA supermarket is also highly concerned about acquiring better human resource
for gaining competitive advantages in the market (Di Fabio and Peiró, 2018 ). There are some
functions which are performed by human resource manager which are as follows-
Recruitment and Selection: According to the Hunter, Saunders and Constance, (2016)
This is one of the primary function of human resource management. The department of PAMA
actively hire, screens, interviews and select qualified people for particular job role within
organisation. HR managers have to formulate various strategies and plans for recruiting right
people at right job. The managers of PAMA design a strategic criterion that is suitable for job
description. However, Johnson, Lukaszewski and Stone, (2016) said that, The procedure of
finding as well as attracting the potential resources in order to fulfil the vacant job position
within firm is called as recruitment and selection. Managers used to identify the vacancy for job,
analyse the requirement for job, reviews the applications, screening, short-listing and hiring right
candidate for specified job role. There are mainly two types of recruitment and selection which
are internal recruitment and external recruitment. Internal recruitment is one which HR manager
hire the employees from insight the company.
On the other hand, when HR managers hire from external sources is called as external
recruitment. Russell and Brannan, (2016) said that internal recruitment is much better than
external as it allows hiring at low cost, employees are known to the company and it also makes
the employees attractive. But Ingold and Valizade, (2017) argues that, internal recruitment create
conflict at workplace and it also limits the talent pool. External recruitment is best for attracting
new talent as it also helps in gaining competitive advantages within organisation. In order to
raise the efficiency within organisation workforce, HR managers at PAMA could follow five
practices which are recruitment planning, Strategy Development, Searching, Screening and
Evaluation & Control. By following these practices, PAMA supermarket can easily hire most
suitable candidate for particular job role. In addition to this, HR managers are also moving

towards the online recruitment, recruitment agencies, recruitment software, applications as now
it has becomes very popular for finding and inviting applicants for particular job.
Human Resource Development: As per the Tarique, Briscoe and Schuler, (2015)
human resource development is also one of the core function of human resource management.
HRD includes raising and sharpening the capabilities of employees working in the company and
it relied on continuous and planned development. The entire process of HRD is note merely a set
of techniques and mechanism that includes training and development, counselling, performance
appraisals and organisation development intervention are used to initiate, facilitate and promote
this process in continuous way.
However, Guan and Frenkel, (2018) said that it is development oriented functions
performed by HR managers of PAMA supermarket. The purpose of HRM is only to manage and
develop the human resource capital but the purpose of HRD is development of entire
organisation along with employees. Kerzner and Kerzner, (2017) argues that, it is not possible
for all the organisations to focus on Human resource development it is because it requires high
cost of operations which is not at all possible for small and medium type of organisation.
Organising training and development session for employees on regular basis raises the cost of
operations by which decreases the profitability of the company.
However, Saddler and Hills, (2017) said that, organisations that want superior ans
dynamic growth in rapid changing business environment. Training and development is one of the
core element that is includes in HR functions i.e. HRD. Organisations hire experts to conduct the
training session that motivate employees as well as raise skills and knowledge of employees. The
main purpose of HRD is to develop the capabilities and strength of each employees as an
individual and in relation to their personnel role and future role as well. Furthermore, HRD also
focus on developing the dynamic relationship between each employees and their supervisors,
collaboration, team spirit.
Motivation: As per the findings of Reilly and Williams, (2016) motivation is the heart of
human resource management. It is the process that energizes, directs and prolong human
behaviour. The desire of person to do the best the assigned work in the best possible manner is
called as motivation. If employees are demotivated than it is not possible to obtain productive
work. It is glue that connects employees to organisational goals. However, Trullen and et.al.,

(2016) articulates that motivation is the process of inspiring people to work hard for achieving
organisational goals. It is the responsibility of HR managers to encourage employees and
motivate them to put their cent percent to maximise productivity at workplace. Motivation
includes intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as it is very important to keep employees motivated
within organisation.
HR department should plan strategic incentive's system for employees to appreciate them
and keep entire workforce motivated. According to the Ostroff and Bowen, (2016) motivation
starts from unsatisfied needs as they motivate employees to satisfy their unsatisfied needs and
expectations and if employees are unsatisfied than it is not possible to expect productive work
from them. Alziari, (2017) argued that, it is not always possible for HR managers to fulfil all the
needs of employees. So, at that time, HR managers have to make balance so that they can retain
the employees for longer period.
According to the words of Mason, (2017) motivation tends to develop positive attitude at
workplace so, managers should always create positive environment for employees. In order to
motivate employees, HR managers should organize activities to refresh their mind once in a
week that motivate employees. It is because demotivate employees creates negative attitude
towards employees as they do not make active participation. Motivation also helps in minimising
absenteeism and allows optimum utilisation of resources. So, HR managers have to put efforts to
keep employees motivates because advantages are very high in percentage. However, Jekiel,
(2016) said that, motivation includes pay benefits, effective working conditions, flexible policies
of firm, career development, relationship with organisation, job security, reputation of company.
If these all are going in positive direction, it will positively affect the entire organisation.
Performance Management: As per the Kalra, (2017) the process of creating work
environment in which people are enable to perform to the best of their abilities. Human resource
managers used to manage the performance of each and every employees in a designated way.
They have to play an essential role in designing as well as implementing the performance
management. In-fact, human resource manager acts an intermediator between employees and
reviewing authorities or functional heads. If performance of employees are not appraised in time
than it is not possible to retain employees and gain productive work. It is the duty of human
resource team to make sure about the implementation of appraisal process. HR managers at

PAMA used to communicate the goals or expectations of company to all the employees so that
they put efforts accordingly.
However, Wallo, Kock and Nilsson, (2016) said that there are HR managers at PAMA
supermarket used to play important role in developing attitude, capabilities as well as to initiate
performance with quality into the work where HR has to cooperate with line managers in order
to retain employees. The main purpose of performance appraisals is to allow employees of the
organisation to progress and move forwards to their full potential in the expectations of meeting
the needs of company as well as achieving personal development goals. It also brings huge
improvement in the communication between employer and employees. Chadwick, Super and
Kwon, (2015) argued that, performance appraisal is necessary but it develops negative
experience for both manager and employee. It sometimes also claims about the personal interest
of bias with any employee because it is based on observation not any statical tool. Further, it also
very time consuming process because HR managers have a hundred of employees. Rana, (2018)
said that, the biggest challenges faced by human resource management of PAMA supermarket is
natural biases because this work is mainly based on observation so it is might be happen that HR
manager can be bias or personal interest.
As per the Yusoff, Ramayah and Othman, (2015) to make this functions successful and
free from bias, organisations are using some advance tools like key performance indicator.
Benchmarking, 360 degree analysis so that they can get much better outcomes. It is very
important that employees should be benefited to the employees. It allows employees growth and
development for future.
Managing Disputes: According to the Kim, (2018) this is also very important function
of Human resource management because in every organisation there are chances of disputes
because of people with different culture, belief and attitudes that leads to disputes within
organisation among different groups. At that time, it is the responsibility of HR managers to
resolve the conflicts among the employer and employees. HR managers used to maintain close
relationship with the employees so that they can personally ask grievances of employees and
communicate them to superiors. HR managers take time to resolve he hurdles as well as prevent
those things coming in the future. However, DAI, (2019) said that by managing conflicts at
workplace, automatically maintain the work atmosphere that results in gaining productive work

from employees. Further, it is also the duty of HR managers to develop the healthy, clean and
safe environment within organisation so that employees can give cent percent to employees.
Developing Public Relations: As per the views of Klingner, Llorens and Nalbandian,
(2015) the duty of establishing good relations with public lies with human resource management
to a great extent. HR managers of the company organises meetings, programmes, seminars and
official get-together to build up the relationship with business sectors. The HR managers of
PAMA supermarket are also greatly aware of building relationship with business sector it is
because of its great importance in managing brand equity and public image.
TASK 3
HRM Software programs and their benefits
Any business cannot run without the involvement of the human resource. If the business
deals in human capital then obviously it needs to have to deal with many problems. This is
because of the reason that all the individuals have different level of thinking, perception and all
are different in the way how they deal with the different situations (Renkema, Meijerink and
Bondarouk, 2016). Each and every different type of company have to compulsorily manage the
manpower or the human resource because of the reason for every work is done by the human
only. If all the employees work within the organization then obviously there will be differences
among them because all the people have different attitude and perspective relating to different
concepts.
So it is very essential to have an efficient and effective human resource department so
that it can manage all the problems and the grievances of all the employees. For this the HR
department uses many different software and the tools of managing the human resource (Bhatti
and Ahsan, 2016). A company can efficiently and effectively manage its human capital by using
suitable and appropriate HR software products. The different types of HRM software used by the
PAMA supermarkets are discussed below-
Human Resource Information System (HRIS)- this is a type of software which is used for the
purpose of the entering the data relating to the employees, keeping a track of the data which
means that time- to- time reviewing the data relating to that employee if there is any update
regarding that employee. According to Mehta, Daniel and McNevin, (2017), HRIS involves
administering all the staff, managing the data relating to the staff and the employees, managing
and recording the performance of the employees and providing them rewards. Here the HRIS

performs the functions of recording the performance and comparing those performance with the
standard performance in order to provide the employees with their required rewards and
incentives.
On the other hand, Chuang, Jackson and Jiang, (2016), says that using HRIS is very
advantageous because the HRIS records all the information and data relating to the employees.
Another benefit is that this system records the day- to- day performance of all the employees
which automatically calculates the performance of the employees. If any employee performs
good then automatically the reward for those employees is calculated and is credited in the
accounts of the employees. Another benefit of the use of HRIS is that this is a system where all
the data relating to the employees are stored on online system. So this reduces the process of
documenting (HRIS advantages and disadvantages, 2014). This is beneficial because now if the
HR needs to have information of a particular employee then he can just type the name of the
employee and have all his records. This process was earlier complex and cumbersome because
earlier the HR used to find the details in the files and documents maintained by the HR
department.
In contrast Wang, Pan and Liang, (2016), articulates that use of HRIS is disadvantageous
because installing this type of software or the system is very costly and expensive. The another
major disadvantage is that the use of the software is not the cup of tea for everyone. It means that
not every person is fluent and friendly with the use of these software because it is not necessary
that every person does not have the proper knowledge of using these software.
Human Capital Management Software (HCM)- this is a software or a type of software or an
application which is made with the reason to assist and help the company in order to maintain
and manage the employees of the company or the total workforce within the whole company.
This software is a combination of different software like, time sheet software, productivity
analytic software, payroll software and many other software.
In the words of Bondarouk, Parry and Furtmueller, (2017), the use of HCM software is
helpful because it aids the company in planning fr the future needs relating to the recruitment and
selection of the new employees. It also helps the company in utilizing and saving the time as the
use of the software minimizes the human efforts because the use technology saves the time. But
in the words of Shamir and Eilam - Shamir, (2018), the installation of this software is very
expensive as compared to the manual recording and analysing of the information. Similarly there

are also more chances of cyber threat and loss of information and loss or theft of data and
information relating to the employees.
TASK 4
Characteristics of effective leaders
Leadership is a series of step or the process or activity which the leader of the top
management in the company carries out. The leadership is carried out by the person called
leader. The leader performs the function of directing, providing guidance to the employees and
influencing and encouraging the employees when they are dissatisfied or demotivated to perform
their work efficiently and productively (Grint, Jones and Holt, 2016). For the successful
accomplishment of the work of the business it is very necessary to have a proper guidance and
process to be followed by the employees to accomplish their work efficiently and effectively.
The leadership also involves influencing other people and employees to work more better and
productively. For this the leader must be efficient and effective in influencing other employees to
increase their efficiency and productivity. In order to influence other people firstly the leader
must be fully capable and must posses all the skills and traits so that the employees get influence
from him. For this he needs to posses some specific characteristics which are discussed as
follows-
 The most important characteristic which needs to be possessed by the leader is to be a
good communicator (Boin, Stern and Sundelius, 2016). This is because of the reason that
the major role of leader is to influence others and this is possible only if the leader can
effectively make the employees understand what he wishes tell the employees.
 The another characteristic of the leader is to have a clear vision and mission that what he
wants to do. Also he must be capable of making a balance between the goals and the
objectives of the company as a whole and the personal goals and the objectives of all the
followers (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, eds., 2019).
 Another characteristic that must be possessed by the leader is to implement more
innovation and creativity in the business so that the business runs successfully and is able
to stand out differently from the competitors.
The most suitable type of leadership model that the PAMA supermarket adopt in
managing their workforce is the Participative or the Democratic style of leadership. This style is
used in popularity and by large number of organization because this style of leadership is the best

(Roueche, Baker III and Rose, 2014). The democratic leadership is a type of leadership which
allows all the employees or the member of the team to take a participative role at the time of
decision making. Under this style of leadership the leaders give a chance to all the team members
to participate in the group at the time of decision making and share their ideas, views and
suggestions of all the employees (Wang, Waldman and Zhang, 2014). Here the leader uses the
kind of brainstorming activity wherein before taking a particular decision the leader asks for the
ideas and suggestions of all the employees and after considering all the suggestions the final
decision is taken by the leader.
This is the most suited style because when more people brainstorms on a particular topic
than there are more chances of getting more creative and innovative ideas. Also when every
person in the team works in the same direction then it will result in more productive outcome and
more profitability (Shamir, Arthur and House, 2018). Also it increases the involvement of the
employees in the process of the decision making this develops a feeling of involvement and
belongingness of the employees in the business decisions. This increases the satisfaction and
commitment level of the employees towards the working and the operations of the company.
CONCLUSION
Managing human capital and leadership is very necessary and essential for the success of
the company. With the thorough study of the whole report it can be interpreted that human
capital refers to as the humans or the manpower present in the company. The employees or the
human capital is termed as the lifeline of the company. This is because of the reason that without
the human capital no work can be done properly and efficiently. In the present study it was
highlighted that managing human capital is very essential part within the company. For
providing the knowledge and importance of managing the human resource the report has
highlighted some models for managing the workforce. Furthermore it discussed some functions
of the HR n the company along with some recommendations. Further, it outlined some of the
HRM software. At last it discussed some of the characteristics of being an effective leader within
the organization.