People Management in UK Organizations: A Report on Contemporary Issues

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of people management within UK organizations, focusing on contemporary issues faced by line managers, the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors for effective people management, and the HR processes that support effective performance management. It examines challenges such as lack of skills, motivation, and the impact of leadership styles, particularly in the context of COVID-19. The report explores the importance of employee relations, problem-solving skills, and accountability, while also highlighting the need for high-performance working practices, performance management cycles, and flexible working arrangements. Finally, it suggests future HR practices, including employee engagement and career coaching, to enhance employee performance and organizational success. This report offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of people management and provides practical recommendations for future HR strategies.

MG411 Introduction to
People management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Contemporary issues faced by line management in case of people management..................3
Knowledge, Behaviour and skills for effective people management.....................................4
HR process to support management for effective performance management........................5
Suggestions for future HR practises:......................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Managing people in organisations is one of the most important aspects of organisation. In
this present changing situation of external environment it is identified that there is no one size
fits of managing people. It is identified that there is requirement of proper skills, knowledge and
behaviour of management for the purpose of managing people and employees. In the covid 19
situation managers are facing issues of managing the employees for this there is requirement of
human resource function support to underpin the performance level. COVID 19 has affected the
way human resource, managers and workforce interaction while they are managing people across
different levels of organisation (DeNisi and Murphy, 2017). Preset report is based on analysing
the way UK organisations are getting better at managing people. For this there is analysis of the
contemporary issues face line management people are facing in context of people management.
There is analysis of skills, knowledge and behaviours required for effective people management
and different HR process that is required to support management when it comes to effective
performance management process.
Contemporary issues faced by line management in case of people management
There are some of the challenges that are faced by line managers in the process of people
management that may affect the present strategies of workforce management:
There is analysing of the ability motivation opportunity for the purpose of analysing the
challenges that are faced by line mangers in the process of managing the overall workforce:
In terms of AMO theory it can be said that one of the primary challenges that are faced by line
managers includes that they are not having proper abilities and skills to implement the specific
performance management system. They may lack the required level of knowledge and the best
practises (Franco-Santo and Doherty, 2017).
It is very important for Human resource functions to support the line managers in acquiring the
required skills and then further working towards facilitation of competencies by selection of
managers based on training and leadership competencies to implement proper practises of
performance management.
Other challenges as per the AMO theory include the motivation that is managers in organisation
might be reluctant to work towards various HR task. Motivation is relate to personal inefuyoves
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of managers are not offered with timely rewards and recognition then there can be lack of
motivation which might affect the present functioning of organisations.
Leadership style and impact on performance management: There are many different leadership
styles that can be used across organisations by managers to implement the employee
management practises. Such as transformational leadership is one such effective style that can
help in dealing with the diverse mature of employees working in the organisation. Each
employee is different in terms of their specific working style, beliefs and values that is posing a
impact on the way they are perceiving their job roles and duties (Adivar, Hüseyinoğlu and
Christopher, 2019). It is imperative that HR functions have to align with the changing diverse
nature of individual performance so that each employee contribution can be in the similar
direction. This situation can be understood such as in marks and Spencer being one of the largest
retail brands across globe. The COVID 19 situation has lead to a shift in the online functioning
of this brand. There is need to enhance the employee working as more social media marketing
strategies will be required to maximise the customer engagement process. For this on the job
training methods are being adopted by organisation so that employees have to be trained
according to the diverse nature of skill sets that are needed in this scenario of COVID 19 (Are
UK organisations getting better at managing their people? 2020).
Knowledge, Behaviour and skills for effective people management
There are some specific set of behaviour, knowledge and skills that are required for effective
people management. There is required to look at some job related aspects to identify the
employees working in public, private & voluntary sectors (Carnevaleand Hatak,., 2020).
In 75 percent of the workplaces many managers have said that they have to work towards
implementing one or more than one specified set of actions so that they are able to deal with the
situation of recession. In the time period of last 30 years there have been lot of changes that are
focussed on the process of people management across many UK organisations. There has been
more priority that is developed for collective aspects of people management as employees are the
key to success and achievement of competitive advantage in the fast changing macro
environment conditions.
There are some of the specific skills sets that is compulsory required for the purpose of managing
employee across organisations:
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Ability to motivate: Managers along with the support of human resource department in
organisation have to look forwards to create a motivated workforce that is ready to accept the
changes taking place in terms of overall functioning.
Patience: Managing team can be difficult at some stages and it might be frustrating in some
instances. There is requirement to focus on dealing patiently with employee’s issues. There can
be instances where there can be difficult to deal with diverse nature of employees and their
individual problems (Pucik, Evans and Björkman, 2017). So it becomes very important for the
line managers to make timely assessment of such requirement of employees with patience so that
overall workforce can be managed properly.
Managing employee relations: In organisations especially amidst this situation of COVID 19 it
become very important to ensure that positive and proper employee relations are being
maintained between employer employee, manager employees and amongst employees. This time
is to come together and work as a team towards the fast changing business conditions. This
vision has to be communicated by the managers to employees so that they are able to focus on
the way there is positive quality of management and employee relations that can be maintained
for long run (Kaufman, 2020).
Problem solving skills: Mangers have to pose the required problem solving or the conflict
resolution of skills that can help in dealing with all the problems that may affect the employee
functioning.
Accountability: With the changing nature of employee functioning it has become more important
for managers along with the support of human resource managers to posses the required
accountability skills. For this managers have to be accountable for the overall level of employee
performance (Poór and et. al., 2018). Effective managers have to held themselves accountable
when the objectives are not achieved to identify the reasons and then work towards reasons for
such deviation that are arsing in course of changing strategies.
Positivity: The covid 19 situation has affected the whole world in a relay negative manner. There
has been a complete breakdown of economies of many countries people are still at the state of
revering from this economic, health and mental shocks that has resulted because of this virus.
HR process to support management for effective performance management
There are certain high performance working practises that can be used as a human resource
management aspect for the purpose of effective HR process:
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High performance working practises: there is need for formalised appraisal system.
Organisations and managers are together are focussing on use of effective payment system to
incentivise employees that is performance related pay, share option schemes and profit related
pay.
Performance management cycle: It is framework that can be used in organisation where there are
several steps that have to be implemented in order to manage the performance of employees
based on this steps the overall level of employee performance can be identified and corrected as
per specific requirements.
Some of the steps include:
Measuring the performance, taking timely feedbacks, based on feedbacks development of
performance outcomes and last step is based on amendments of activities and objectives as per
specific organisation requirements.
(Source: Models and theories of performance management system, 2020)
Another set of mechanism includes employee consultation and employee information
Total QUALITY management: It is a human resource practise that is focussed on having TQM
measures is that quality of employee performance level can be improved and maximized with
time. It requires standards accreditation so that employees in this COVID 19 situation are aware
of the required performance level so that deviations can be timely identified and corrected.
Goal setting theory: It can also be used by managers as there can be improvement of employee
performance by motivating them to enhance their present performance level so that overall goals
can be made more realistic.
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Flexible working practises: In organisations there is need of some flexible working practises that
includes flexitime and ability to vary hours (Greer, 2021). It creates a positive mindset on part of
employees as they may work as per changing organisational requirements.
Employee induction programmes: Development of employee skills as per the changing
organisation needs such as in case of retail sector brands like TESCO there has been a shift
towards more online and e commerce retail system. For this purpose employees have to be
provided training so that they are able to work towards identification of customer buying
patterns.
Employee autonomy: there is need of effective system of team working in organisation so that
there are collaborative working practises laid at different levels of organisational functioning.
Such practises can help in achievement of group laid objectives (Scholz, 2017).
Formalised recruitment procedures: In this covid 19 situation there is high amount of
workforce unemployment situation that is taking place because many industries have lay off their
employees. In order to deal with this situation employers and managers can hire such talented
workforce by having formalised recruitment procedures (Chaudhary, 2019). For this HR
department has to build order job designs, integration of business activities and training
development procedures.
Many organisations are using these practises. Some are using different strategic approaches to
seek the changes and then integrate it with various other element, it can help I having more
pragmatic and partial approach. Some of the elements are depending on the organisational
context and overall changing circumstances that is COVID 19 scenario as per the present market
conditions.
Suggestions for future HR practises:
In terms of people management as one of the most crucial aspects of employee functioning it
becomes very important for the managers along with the support of human resource department
that they have to work towards implementation of certain recommendations as mentioned below:
 CIPD as a professional body can be understood as the aspect of people and HR
development in organisations. Mangers in the changing nature of employee functioning
have to focus towards aspects of understand the culture and mind set of employees. For
this there is requirement of employee engagement and collaborative working practises.
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 Encouraging improvement through skills and career coaching: in this a good employee
can turn into a high performing employee. Employers in this case have top ensure that
employee is ambitious enough to realise that the growth of organisation is directly
interconnect with their own personal growth. It will lead to a development of
performance level as employees can identify the areas that require continuous
improvement in order to maximise their level of potential.
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Conclusion
It is concluded from the above discussed scenario that various reports prepared for BIS in
2012 by the leadership & management development network that is part of CIPD representatives
state that quality management and leadership are the two most important features that have to be
taken into consideration for the purpose of improving overall process of managing employees
across organisations. There are some specific set of skills, knowledge that is required for the
purpose of having a trained workforce that can contribute towards the required level of employee
performance in this changing situation amidst the pandemic of COVID 19 virus.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Adivar, B., Hüseyinoğlu, I.Ö.Y. and Christopher, M., 2019. A quantitative performance
management framework for assessing omnichannel retail supply chains. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 48, pp.257-269.
Carnevale, J.B. and Hatak, I., 2020. Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-
19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business Research, 116,
pp.183-187.
Chaudhary, R., 2019. Green human resource management and job pursuit intention: examining
the underlying processes. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 26(4), pp.929-937.
DeNisi, A.S. and Murphy, K.R., 2017. Performance appraisal and performance management:
100 years of progress?. Journal of applied psychology, 102(3), p.421.
Franco-Santos, M. and Doherty, N., 2017. Performance management and well-being: a close
look at the changing nature of the UK higher education workplace. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(16), pp.2319-2350.
Greer, C.R., 2021. Strategic human resource management. Pearson Custom Publishing.
Kaufman, B.E., 2020. The real problem: The deadly combination of psychologisation, scientism,
and normative promotionalism takes strategic human resource management down a 30‐
year dead end. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), pp.49-72.
Poór and et. al., 2018. Knowledge management in human resource management: Foreign-owned
subsidiaries’ practices in four CEE countries. Journal of International Studies, 11(3).
Pucik, V., Evans, P. and Björkman, I., 2017. The global challenge: International human
resource management.
Scholz, T.M., 2017. Big data in organizations and the role of human resource management: A
complex systems theory-based conceptualization. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang
International Academic Publishers.
Tweedie, D., Wild, D., Rhodes, C. and Martinov‐Bennie, N., 2019. How does performance
management affect workers? Beyond human resource management and its
critique. International Journal of Management Reviews, 21(1), pp.76-96.
Online
The Challenges Facing Lines Managers in Performance Management Systems
[online], Available through https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenges-facing-lines-managers-
performance-systems-alan-murphy->
Models and theories of performance management system, 2020 [online], Available through
https://www.projectguru.in/models-and-theories-of-performance-management-system/>
Are UK organisations getting better at managing their people? 2020 [online], Available through
<https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/megatrends_2014-uk-organisations-managing-people_tcm18-
11407.pdf
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