MG411 Portfolio: People Management - Issues, Skills, and HR Support

This portfolio explores key aspects of people management, focusing on contemporary issues faced by line managers, essential skills and behaviors for effective management, and the HR processes that underpin performance management. It uses company examples and relevant theories such as Lewin's Change Management Model and the Trait Theory of Leadership to illustrate these points. The report identifies challenges like resistance to change and the need for leadership development, emphasizing the importance of skills such as communication, decision-making, and team building. Furthermore, it examines HR processes like performance management reviews and 360-degree appraisals. The portfolio concludes with recommendations for improving talent acquisition, employee training, and leadership development, stressing the need for effective people management to ensure organizational success.

Introduction to people
management

Table of Contents
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................4
Contemporary Issues face line management faces when it comes to People Management
..........................................................................................................................................................4
Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to be an effective people manager ........................6
What HR process underpin and support management when it comes to effective performance
management ..........................................7
Recommendations ..........................................................................................................8
Conclusion ........................................8
References...........................................................................................................................................10
Books and Journals.........................................................................................................................10

Executive Summary
The business environment is dynamic and this leads to various uncertain circumstances in
the company. There is need of Human resource manager that helps the company to manage the
people. In this report some issues that are identified. The skills such as communication, decision
making etc. helps a person to overcome the issue and they are also examined in the report. The
recommendations for benefit of the company are also mentioned at last of the report.

Introduction
Human resource management is one of the important function of management. The role of
HR of company is to manage the people of the company in an effective manner. It is analysed that
there are huge number of employees that work in organisation and it becomes important to manage
them (Khan and Millner, 2020). There are certain actions that are taken by human resource
management of the company in order to manage the employees in the business organisation. In this
report there is discussion related some of the challenges that are being faced by line management in
order to people management. It is necessary to know about the issue and understand the same with
the help of theories. Afterwards there is discussion related to the skills that are required in order to
solve these issues and help the company to operate in an effective manner. There is need of HR
management process so that the company is able to manage the performance effectively. In the end
of this report some recommendations for improvement are being discussed. It is necessary for a
company to know about the issues that may arise and they must take actions of improvement at the
same time.
Contemporary Issues face line management faces when it comes to
People Management
Management Changes: The business environment is diverse and keeps on changing. It is
important for a business organisation to know about the changes that take place in the market and
help the employees to implement them. It is analysed that employees are resistant to change. The
line manager of the company has to face several issues in order to implement change in the
organisation (Leisink and et.al., 2021). It is explained with the help of example of bringing
digitalisation in Unilever. The employees of Unilever were not read to learn new skills and they were
against bringing change in the organisation.
Lewin’s Change Management Model
It is a three phase model that helps the company to bring change in an effective manner. The
process is divided into three stages so that the employees are able to accept the change by taking
necessary actions. The three stages that are stated under this model are discussed below:
Unfreeze: All the employees of Unilever were made ready to understand the need of change
in this stage. The employees are being given guidance and information related to change
management. Unilever conducted proper meeting so that the employees are able to understand the
need of digitalisation and accept the same (Jyoti, 2019). It is necessary for the employees to

understand the need of change so that they are able to take suitable actions. The process of change
takes time and making employees ready to accept the change is necessary.
Change: In this stage, Unilever provides training to the employees so that they are able to
get ready for the change. They are provided with online course that they have to undertake and
then give test so that they are able to attain success. It is analysed that their performance is also
analysed so that the improvements in the employees are observed. All the employees are assigned
work, roles and responsibilities so that they are able to work in an effective manner. These changes
are necessary for success of the company.
Refreeze: In this stage, Unilever assures that the changes becomes permanent. The
employees have accepted it and now the organisation has adopted digitalisation.
Leadership Development: There is need of effective leadership in order to manage the
business organisation. There are certain issues that are faced by the company and a good leader is
able to solve them. The employees need guidance and motivation on regular basis and that can be
attained with the help of proper leadership (Roels and Staats, 2021). At the time of Covid-19 the
employees of Unilever were demotivated and there was requirement of proper leadership
development so that the employees are able to achieve success.
The trait theory
The use trait theory helps the leader of the business organisation to have good and effective
leader. The theory says that, it is not important that there is always a good leadership skills that
make a person good leader. There are certain other skills such as excellent listeners or
communicators that makes a person good leader (Byrne and Revenson, 2021). The leader of
Unilever takes feedback from the employees so that they are able to enhance the skills. At the time
of Covid-19 all the suitable actions of improvement were taken by the leader of Unilever.
Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to be an effective people
manager
There is need of certain skills and behaviours that are required in order to become effective
people manager. These skill help them to manage the employees so that they are able to manage
the people of the company in appropriate manner (Eccleston and et.al., 2020). The discussion
related to the skills is done below:

- Planning: The line manager of Unilever, always makes proper plans. They analyse the
situation in an effective manner. Planing is one of the important function of management
that helps the company to set goals and objectives. All the other function of the company
are carried on after the planning is done in an appropriate manner. It is necessary to conduct
proper research so that planning is done in appropriate manner. Proper planning help
Unilever to implement the changes in organisation in effective manner.
- Good communication: Effective communication helps a business organisation to maintain
good and effective employees relations. It assist in solving all the business problems that
may arise. It is necessary to communicate in proper manner so that all the tasks are
completed effectively (Krane, 2018). The use of good and effective communication assist the
leader of Unilever to lead the employees properly.
- Decision Making Skills: There is need of proper decision making skills so that the line
manager of the business organisation is able to make deal with every situation effectively.
The manager of Unilever analyses the situation in proper manner so that they are able to
take effective decisions.
- Team Building: The use of team building skills helps a company to work together in a team.
There is need to manage the work in teams so that all the goals and objectives are achieved
on effective manner. This is being used by line manager of Unilever, so that they are able to
complete the group goals effectively. There is need of proper coordination among team
members so that they are able to attain success.
- Leadership: The use of proper leadership skills enhances the efficiency of the employees.
There is need to understand the needs and wants of the employees and take necessary
actions that will help to lead them. The leader of Unilever conducts regular meetings with
the employees and communicate with the properly. This helps them to motive them and
assist in working as per the desired goals and objectives.
- Motivating: It is important to keep the employees motivated so that they are able to
complete the task effectively. In relation to Unilever, they understand that the employees
have different needs and new need arise once a need is satisfy (KNAP-STEFANIUK and
BURKIEWICZ, 2020). They try to motivate them by monetary as well as non monetary
benefits so that they are dedicated towards the work.

What HR process underpin and support management when it
comes to effective performance management
The management of the business organisation takes certain action so that they are able to
enhance the performance of the employees. There are several issues that the company faces and
they must use right strategies that help to overcome them (Pettinger, 2020). It is necessary for each
and every business organisation to assure that the employees perform effectively as the overall
growth of organisation is in the hands of employees.
- Performance Management Review: It is a formal assessment that is undertaken by the HR
of the organisation. It helps the company to evaluate the work performance of the
employees. It is important to check the performance of the employees on regular basis. The
real performance of the employees is being understood by the HR of company and then
suitable actions are taken (Ahmed and et.al., 2018). The need of training is being analysed by
performance review of the employees. It helps to give feedback to the employees so that
they are able to enhance their overall performance. It becomes important to check the
performance of regular basis. So that employees also work effectively and the management
is also sure about their work. This assist the employees to work towards the goals of
company and accomplish them.
- 360 Degree Appraisal: It is a technique that is being used to review the performance of the
employees. It can also be defined as a process wherein the subordinates, co-workers, and
managers rate the employee. The real image of the employee on the basis of their
performance is being evaluated through this technique. The subordinates of the company
tells about the behaviour of the employees towards the company. It defined the values that
are being followed by the employees of the company. Along with that the co-workers of the
company tell about the coordination of the employees. They tell about the time
management skills and the communication skills of the employee that play a key role in the
performance management. The manager of the organisation checks the performance of the
employees on regular basis. They tell about the areas of strength and weakness of the
employees so that suitable actions can be taken. Along with that the rating given to the
employees help them to enhance their performance so that they are able to enhance the
same and achieve success. This helps the employee to work on the area that needs
improvement. It helps the company to enhance the performance of the employees in an
effective manner. There is huge importance of using these techniques that helps to check
the performance of the employees and tell them about the areas of improvement.

Recommendations
The points of recommendations are as follows:
 The company must hire the skilled and talented individuals. They must enhance the process
of selection so that they are able to get highly skilled employees that work positively for the
company and helps to achieve success.
 The company must provide proper training to the employees so that they are able to
enhance their skills. It is necessary to evaluate the performance on regular basis so that the
need of training is analysed. There is need to provide technical as well as intellectual skill
training to the employees.
 There is need of proper leadership skills in order to deal with the employees in an
organisation. The employees are assets for the company so there is need of people
management so that they are able to complete the assigned work properly.
Conclusion
From the above report, it is analysed that there is need of managing people in the
organisation. It is necessary to know about the needs and wants of the employees so that they are
able to provide the same to the employees. In this report there is discussion related to issues that
are faced by the line manager with the help of theories. Afterwards, there is evaluation related to
skills that are required to to manage those issues. In the end there is discussion related performance
management techniques and recommendations for success of the company.

References
Books and Journals
Ahmed, S.M and et.al., 2018. Skill Development in Freshmen by Adopting Project Based Learning-"
Introduction to Engineering" Course. Journal of Engineering Education Transformations.
Byrne, M. and Revenson, T.A., 2021. Introduction to the Special Section: The Role of Behavioral
Medicine in Improving Outcomes for People With Type 2 Diabetes. Annals of Behavioral
Medicine, 55(10), pp.935-937.
Eccleston, C and et.al., 2020. Managing patients with chronic pain during the COVID-19 outbreak:
considerations for the rapid introduction of remotely supported (eHealth) pain
management services. Pain, 161(5), p.889.
Jyoti, K., 2019. Green HRM–people management commitment to environmental sustainability. In
proceedings of 10th international conference on digital strategies for organizational
success.
Khan, N. and Millner, D., 2020. Introduction to People Analytics: A Practical Guide to Data-driven HR.
Kogan Page Publishers.
KNAP-STEFANIUK, A. and BURKIEWICZ, Ł., 2020. Modern managers’ values in a multicultural
environment–an introduction to an in-depth study. Education excellence and innovation
management: a, 2025, pp.1022-1034.
Krane, V., 2018. Introduction: LGBTIQ people in sport. In Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Sport (pp. 1-
12). Routledge.
Leisink, P and et.al., 2021. Introduction: Managing for Public Service Performance: How People and
Values Make a Difference. In Managing for Public Service Performance (pp. 1-22). Oxford
University Press.
Pettinger, R., 2020. Introduction to management. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Roels, G. and Staats, B.R., 2021. Introduction to the Manufacturing & Service Operations
Management Special Issue on People-Centric Operations. Manufacturing & Service
Operations Management, 23(4), pp.758-760.