Human Resource Management Functions and Case Studies Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Human Resource Management (HRM) functions within a business context. It begins by defining competency models and their role in the HR department, including their use in recruitment, training, and performance management. The report then details the operational and strategic roles of HRM, emphasizing the impact of technology and the importance of employee engagement, performance management, and strategic alignment with business goals. The analysis includes two case studies: one focusing on Southwest Airlines' strategic approach to HRM and another examining the performance issues of an employee named Mary Corey, along with recommended actions for managers. The report highlights the importance of adapting to changing workforce dynamics, utilizing HR tools and techniques, and effectively managing employee relations to achieve organizational success. It concludes by emphasizing the significance of strategic HRM in maintaining a competitive advantage and fostering a positive work environment.

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Human resource management
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Part 1...........................................................................................................................................................2
Answer 1.................................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2.................................................................................................................................................3
Answer 3.................................................................................................................................................4
Part 2...........................................................................................................................................................6
Answer 1.................................................................................................................................................6
Part 3...........................................................................................................................................................7
Answer 1.................................................................................................................................................7
Answer 2.................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References.................................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The paper will reflect upon the major functions of Human Resource Management (HRM) in
business. It will discuss the role of competency model in the Human resource (HR) department.
It will provide with information based on changing roles of HRM within the organization.
Moreover, it will discuss the operational and strategical role of the HR team that helps in
maintaining, controlling and monitoring the organizational activities. The primary aim is to focus
on the two case scenarios that are based on the functions of HRM. Furthermore, it will discuss
the factors that are important for the managers to manage the organizational activities.
Part 1
Answer 1
A competency model is considered to be the framework that defines the knowledge and skill
requirements of a job. It is mainly a set of competencies that together define an effective
performance of a job. The competency models are used in business to a great extent to define and
assess competencies within an organization in both soft and hard skills (Albrecht et al., 2015).
They present a major element of hiring and recruitment as well as the management of
performance and talent based activities of the Human resource (HR) department. The assessment
based on competencies often helps in forming the basis for learning content and training
programs both for informal and formal. This effective models also creates a basis for linking the
competencies with the advice of the training consultant, a significant best practice and
organizational strategy. It also helps an organization to link the expertise with the HR processes,
productivity goals, and evaluation (Stone et al., 2015). This particular model not only provides
training to the junior but also to the senior employees in the HR department. It recognizes the
requirements of training and helps in enhancing the personal development of the staff. It also

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develops relevant training methodology and materials within the organization. It is useful as it
develops a specific strategy of the program or project. In the HR department forming a
framework of competency is an efficient method to monitor, maintain and assess the attributes,
skills, and knowledge of the members within the organization. It helps in recognizing the
particular skills and behaviors required for a specific role an enables Human resource
management (HRM) team to plan and budget for the training and development of the
organization that is required (Bakker and Demerouti, 2014). It ensures an employer in the HR
department that the organization’s funded professional and training development are not only
productive, goal oriented but also cost-effective.
Answer 2
In every organization, the HR department plays a vital role in managing the working hours,
payrolls, salary management, interviews, and hiring. The role of HR is not limited to this it also
looks upon the retention and performance, implementing new processes and ideas, employee
engagement and appraisals. HR is determined to be a specific department where its functionality
involves two types they are operational and strategic (Sheehan, 2014). An efficient and good HR
team is one who handles all the responsibilities of both the types methodically. In today's
context, the increased growth and advancement in the technology has created certain software
that plays a major of the responsibilities that are handled by the HR. This, in turn, helps the HR
to be more productive to structure out a bright future not only for the organization but also for its
employees. In any company, the major activities of HR are based on operational and strategic
management that includes employee engagement and performance management, training and
orientation, benefits and compensation as well as recruitment (Ellinger and Ellinger, 2014). The
management of the employee relation includes operational activities like complaint management,

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compliance, maintenance of policy and many more. Whereas, the strategic activities include
alignment of the hiring strategies related to the business engagement and goals with the best
talent that will support the organization to achieve its targets (Sikora and Ferris, 2014).
Moreover, it is significant to review the performance of a particular department or individual that
is carried out for a long or short-term basis. With proper monitoring and tracking of the
organizational resources, a strategic HRM could plan initiatives to build an environment that
represents creativity and innovation. Efficient use of technology could reduce the need for
continuous monitoring and permits HR to form Employee Benefits Programs and Reward
Programs to enhance the employees to be more engaged and motivated within the organization
(Kramar, 2014).
Answer 3
In today's workforce, there are various factors in the changing role of HR that includes
responsibility of HR to help maintain and establish the organizational culture, the use of
technology in HR and modernized duties at organizations. Most of the organizations have
experienced remarkable change since the past decades because of more diverse employees, new
employment regulations and evolving technologies (Brewster, 2017). The role of HR
departments has been greatly influenced by the self-serve digital tools and the increasing
availability of technology. Sometimes the change in technology has permitted the HR
professionals to adapt to the role of strategic activities. While in some of the cases technology
permits the HR professionals to address the administrative task related to their roles more
effectively. This changes in the role of HR will influence the training and development processes
as well as the responsibilities of the employees (Shuck et al., 2014).

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For the HR managers, it is significant to make use of proper tools and techniques for the proper
planning process and to make sure that the business is executing systematically. This will help
the company to attain the objectives and goals to get success. The HR tools and techniques
include HRM information system, performance solution, recruiting software, payroll service, a
platform for benefits management and tools for employee engagement (Collings, Wood and
Szamosi, 2018). In today's context, the major target of the businesses is to achieve a competitive
advantage, and that could be achieved with the efficient use of tools and techniques. For example
with the help of analyzing the data HR could turn over the rates and identify the problems that
will help the organization to find out the problems in a rapid speed and get a better solution to
resolve the problem (Keep, 2014). For instance, if the data presents the fact that most of the
turnovers are from new hires than the team could focus on the issue and cause for this turnover.
If the data present that the one group has a higher turnover as compared to the other businesses
than the focus could divert there.
Part 2
Answer 1
Southwest Airlines faces challenges with every organization earlier or later. Although the
success of the organization can be consistent for some years still at some point, the competition
starts to take its turn. It is critical to maintaining the same strong culture due to the changes in
leadership. This, in turn, puts a tremendous impact on managing the sustainability of success
with the changing competitive environment (Hohenstein, Feisel and Hartmann, 2014). A
strategic approach is considered to be the implementation of techniques and tricks in a skillful
manner. The approach could be specific or generic. To deal with any challenges, the HRM must
efficiently implement the strategies that are formulated effectively.

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Southwest Airlines is a successful airlines company that has remained in the same position since
the past five years. The organization’s performance is good but because of the changes in the
competitive environment and the competition within the market the managers of different areas
are unable to decrease the structure of the cost. The first and the most significant strategic
approach that the company has taken is to link their HR strategy with the vision and mission of
the organization. Thus, the primary responsibility of HR is to make sure that they form an
efficient HR strategy that highlights the vision and mission of the organization. This strategy
must be followed by every employee of the company. The second strategic approach that was
adopted is enhancing their employees provide excellent customer service and enjoy their work.
This helped the organization to provide its customers with best customer service as the
employees were fulfilled with various powers (Sung and Choi, 2014). The third most significant
strategic approach that was implemented that increased the effectiveness of the organization is
the modification in the name. The Southwest's HR department is being named as the people
department that focuses on the two "C's" common sense and compassion.
Part 3
Answer 1
Recently Mary Corey has completed her fourth year with the State-wide Services Corporation.
She constantly received a high-performance evaluation at the position of customer support
specialist (Hornstein, 2015). But recently her performance and behavior have fallen as compared
to her previous performance. As I am the HR manager of the organization, I observed this
change in the behavior and performance of Mary Corey that made me wonder why it happened
so. It was observed that after lunch moved off to sleep at her desk. In January and February she
was late for 10 to 20 minutes on six different days, and four days she gave the excuse of having a

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fever. She was outburst with anger belligerence and became extremely short tempered. I also
observed some difference in her behavior after lunch. The change in the behavior was not known
to anybody within the organization. It was assumed that this change must be because of some
personal issues.
As Mary was a strong employee and this change in the behavior will put a negative impact on the
organizational activities. Considering the negative performance of Mary I would rather adopt
some action plan before making a decision. I would look upon her personnel folder to gather
information about her. I came to know that she was a single mother of two teenage girls. Hence I
assumed that there must be something happening at her home which is the major reason for her
negative behavior. I will talk to her and resolve the matter, but if she does not give much
response and I will ask the other coworkers to talk to her. As her behavior did not show any
improvement, her behavior towards her colleagues also seemed to be negative. I would intend to
warn her of losing her job due to her behavior, still, if the condition does not change I would take
the help of Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and hope that this will work out before making
any decision.
Answer 2
Taking into account the situation of Mary Corey it is recommended for the line managers to
decide consciously of how to effectively respond to a conflict situation and inquire, reflect and
listen to the problems of the employees. To observe the changes and to inquire about the main
reason behind the change. It is significant for the managers to respond to the situations in an
effective way that will help to reduce the work stress and conflict (Noe et al., 2014). As the
employees are overburdened with too much of workload and that results into the occurrence of
stress. Hence the organizational environment must be stress-free and enjoyable so that the

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employees will enjoy working in the organization. Also, the manager should listen to the
problems of the employee and provide them with the best solutions to resolve their issues as it
puts an impact on their performance. This, in turn, affects in achieving the organizational goals.
While managing the conflicts of the employees within the organization, the HRM functional area
involved is managing employee relations. Maintaining good relation with the employees helps in
managing the organizational activities (Paillé et al., 2014). This will help in developing the
performance of the employees to achieve the organizational goals to get success.
Conclusion
The paper concludes by demonstrating the role and responsibility of HRM within the
organizations. It provided with three parts, and each part discussed the primary functions of the
HR department. It aimed to discuss the strategy of the HR department in managing the
organizational activities. It discussed the two case scenarios that provided with various
information's related to the implementation of a strategic approach that helps in dealing with the
challenges faced by the organizations. It is observed that although the organizations deal with
various challenges related to business and employees, it is significant for the manager to manage
the challenges effectively.

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References
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