Abstract
This study tends to analyze the article mostly with respect to organizational climate. The article talks in favor of strategic human resource management approach which is the modern approach of human resource. This study gives the brief scenario of the condition of human resource management in current practice and its sensitivity which is followed by the brief background of the article. The article has supported the strategic human resource management as the second wave of human resource management evolution after the first wave that has improvised much aspect than the traditional one with different cases, examples, and exhibits. The study then tends to analyze all the cases in general through the lens of organizational climate and has tended to find out some challenges and loopholes of strategic human resource management. Finally, the solutions are proposed which could support the strategic human resource management in enhancing the organizational climate with respect to the human resource.
Introduction:
This article renders a review of the human resource hereafter known as HR, its evolution in modern human civilization, different innovation of strategic human resource management (SHRM) that are yearned by HR managers so that they can ally with their line managers strategically for the organizational good and so on.
HR decision making is not just an ordinary issue but critical ones which is tough and sensitive, and which makes the strategic implementation very risky and difficult. The human characteristic is very dynamic and unpredictable which is far different than any other resources deployed by an organization such as physical or financial resource. As similar as, value or goodwill of the organization, the human resource value is very intangible and hence very critical. We have a trend to analyze the value of a person financially by viewing through translucent lens whereas the cost that comes up with the people are very visible. However, if viewed macro and micro-economically, there is long impact chain, for example, the effect of payment to the employee determines the attitude of the employee that causes their behavior towards the customer or their work, which defines the customers repurchasing behavior and finally which affects the organizational results. These facts are in dark at the best, and the cost of the pay to an employee on another hand is pretty absolutely known along with the training cost and other facilities. The orthodoxical accounting practice further integrates such contradictions. Since, employees are not exactly owned by the company, they don’t appear as the asset in the balance sheet but rather as an expense on the income statement and hence organizations treat them as expense to be minimized whereas the truth is that work delivered by the people is the asset that actually have potential to be appreciated in the values.
Key issues:
• How does the different level of employees perceive the organizational and HRD climate?
• How much importance do the top management and line managers place on human resource development, personnel policies and positive attitudes towards development?
• How can the organizational and SHRM facilitate in enhancing the employee work performance?
Background:
The article talks about two waves of strategic human resource management.
The human-capital management and executive training and
The strategic partnership.
The first wave, which is the orthodox one, and which describes the prominent challenge of HRM as the synchronization challenge of the central management competencies with the specific requirement of the business which requires the right analysis of external as well as internal elements.
The second wave, which is the modern human resource management practice, is the newer concept that amalgamates the modern technology. The new concept of HRM is the cyborg with the modern technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology which is sophisticated and which we can associate even in our university.
According to the article, HR aspects now are given higher value, and the trend is increasing. The recent trend has been the unifying Human resource with the central system by either outsourcing tactical human resources such as task delegation on independent consultants in contract or hiring of temporary human power. The use of technology as mentioned above, so as to leverage the human resource activities is another increasing trend. Centralized IT system is what many firms are electing as an investment in the technological platform of Human Resource that has increased the possibility of eradicating the errors of the system and fit the technological platform with financial mechanism of the firm. Implementing strategic business partner at this time is a good time decision as this would contribute to making the functions more efficient and strategic. Further, technology deployment helps is nullifying the barrier in the delivery of strategic human resource management like measurement and communication of the business impact due to tactical human resource practice. The example is given in the article that the modern concept of HR not only requires a measurement system to render the relationship between investment in HR and output towards the value to shareholder, as understood by the manager but further could also be engaged far deeper towards strategical issues such as how and why the people can create different impact.
For such issues, inspiring skills are to be developed by the SHRM leaders so as to act as a successful strategical role player.
Understanding the way line managers have made their perception towards the new HR, their roles and what they expect from the HR leaders to accept them in their roles, the process was initiated which maps four pockets, each of the pockets representing operational, strategic, customer and financial perspective which was modified from balanced scorecard which can be clearly seen in the HR metrics.
The article talks about the realization of the importance of the SHRM in the section of "Line Manager's view on Strategic HR like important feedbacks provided by SHRM to the managers which could be utilized in strategic value added services and which would guide the flexibility of the HR matters. But this necessarily doesn't mean that HR totally can dissect the operation and business of the firm. At the same time, it is very important to get educated in terms of SHRM knowledge with the wide spectrum of necessary so that backing up the line managers with the strategic support is really fruitful. The article further focuses that SHRM needs to excel in recruitment, training, development, plan succession and compensation. There are however no thumb rules, and the SHRM practice varies on what line manager really requires, their expectation, their field of work , plan and operation.
Analysis
The organizational climate is viewed as an important facet of motivating and developing the employees in the organization. Its nature depends on the perceptions and levels of satisfaction among the employees in an organization within any given climate. On the other hand, HRD climate generates motivation level amongst the employees to work for the organization.
The findings from the view of organizational climate in the case infer that modern trend provides career development opportunities, and the superiors are encouraging and cooperative. The clear distinction of the job roles and priorities facilitate the employees to perform better. However, the dissatisfaction related to the pay scales may create grievances amongst the cadres of employees. This issue needs to be addressed by the HRD.
The line managers may be against the views that job offers one to grow as a person, work division is logical and friendly relations with the members of the department whereas the junior managers and the non-executives favors such views. The job position that they hold in the company might be one of the reasons for the differences in the opinions.
The findings also suggest that the issues related to competency development of the employee, staff initiation and decision making without the instructions of the superiors and initiative among the seniors on career opportunities to juniors need to be addressed by SHRM. The orthodox HRD climate provides the minimum degree of importance towards the employee development, but the trend can be improved through the actions of SHRM.
The views of the middle and line managers may contradict because in many cases that they tend to have rated high on employees are encouraged to experiment with the new ideas however the rating is low on employees are encouraged to take initiative on their own without the instruction of their supervisor. It should be kept in mind that the scores high on harmonious relations between supervisors and subordinates do not necessarily mean the scores on the development of the subordinates on the part of the supervisors could be the cases. The policies developed by the top management always may not be aligned with the development of the employees. Hence, this may be one prominent cause of the issue. On the part of the subordinates, they also may not utilize the delegated authority as an opportunity for development. The middle/senior and line managers could view that career opportunities are not aptly pointed out to them by their seniors.
These all could mean that the HRD climate of the company could be depicted as unfavorable which would have a negative impact on the company if corrective actions are not taken immediately. It is SHRM who should fit all these issues in a loop and tend to simplify them.
Economic investment and technology have been given the high degree of importance in the public sector all over the world, and the trend is increasing. The public sectors have the right people employed but the enhancement of their skills, knowledge; capabilities in terms of technological advancement generally are under looked. The development of the employees at organizations would provide the competitive advantage to sustain in the industry. The right alignment of the organizational and HRD climate with the need of the organization and employees can facilitate the employee's work performance and enhance employee development.
The unseen area is that technology always may not be friendly at seems to be. There are threats which were unseen before the application of technology such as the threat of unemployment due to technology deployment. For example, technology can replace numerous employees dedicated in the filing system. Such losses are shadowed as well as difficult to compensate or say recover. How can all these be addressed? The concept of SHRM is very critical and sensitive issue that are playing roles and are becoming more and more vital with the change of the paradigm shift implemented by the leaders of the organization which was initially deployed for the efficient HRM practice such as to design the organizational structure, setting staffing policies and protocols which is measurable and could help in the retention, identifying best leadership practices, intellectual and optimum utilization of the capital, make work process swift, crisp and efficient and to increase quality in the total productivity and system as well as the final output. This issue is, however, is not addressed in the case. In my opinion, overlooking such issues could later bring problems which we may stay unready for.
Further, the case mentions that the HR being now given investment focus and it is also being a target for being accountable for the quality of the productivity and business goal deviations. Very little HR managers had the ability in the successful conversion of company strategies and goals to the real activity and HR targets that could be measured. HR being perceived as inferior, the companies even were trying to lure line managers in the HR roles without letting them know. HR being not so wanted, the organizations even changed the name of their HR unit to other names. For the positive change, even the MBAs and former line managers were positioned in strategic HR role although it was explored that the strategic HR is best when the person with dexterity over HR practice are the ones who are in charge.
Apart from the challenge of activities implementation according to the strategy, the new HR was subjected towards further wholesale criticism. Skepticism from practitioners about the focus of New HR towards business strategy will deviate from monitoring of employment relation, and doubt of investment drive down is the example.
Solutions:
So what could be the alternative to such issues? There were numerous shortcomings in the orthodox HR practice which gave rise to the second wave of HR. There still remain loopholes which we should not wait to be addressed by another wave of the HR practice. The intellects of SHRM should be aware of these issues very properly.
We should understand that positive change in HRD Climate and its components will bring about positive changes in job satisfaction and in turn impact the organizational performance in a positive manner. The findings of the study indicate that there is a still substantial scope for improvement in various aspects of in modern HR practice as well as factors influencing job satisfaction. Thus, the top management of the organizations needs to understand the importance of SHRM department and provide more support, time and resources towards it listing wider possibilities of HR issues. The SHRM mechanisms should revolve around effective practices of performance appraisal, potential appraisal, career planning, performance rewards, feedback, counseling, training, managerial learning network as well as organizational development for which the concerned employees can not only be trained but make them feel live about the scenario.
The early identification of human resource potential and development of their skill represent two major tasks of human resource development, which can only be achieved when conducive HRD Climate prevails and should be noted by SHRM. The personnel policies of the company do not facilitate employee development thus the SHRM should maintain their focus on the system level improvement so that policies could be developed to cater the needs of the employee development and enhance their competencies as well.
The potential appraisals are lagging behind in many organizations for which the line managers should be trained to be skilled enough so as to assess the strengths and areas of improvement of their subordinates. The SHRM should also address that the line managers are trained well enough to conduct job rotation in their respective departments to create the strong network of the understanding environment.
Also, the focus of the subordinates should be shifted towards competence building. It is in the part of the line managers to make the subordinates aware about the progressive roles that they might handle in future with the acquisition of the new capabilities. The SHRM are supposed to improvise HRD so that they can advise the line managers to be the part of the awareness sessions. The top management’s commitment should also be increased towards learning & potential development of its employees.
The policy to delegate authority to the certain level should be given to the employees. Necessary actions and job assignments can be allocated to ensure the proper utilization and acceptance of the delegated authority.
The HRD should suggest in revising the compensation policies as per the industry standards. The major issue lies in the inequitable pay scales for which the concerned manager can be trained about handling the employee grievances effectively.
The line managers should be trained to encourage their subordinates to utilize the career opportunities. Sound personnel policies that show high concern for employees and emphasize equity and objectivity in appraisals would go a long way in creating a better HRD Climate in the organization.
As exhibit 8 which shows the difference between benchmarking and strategic measures, the concept of traditional benchmarking has now been outdated and should be as it doesn’t address the current HR issues. The strategic measure which addresses the issue of benchmarking in modern context should also be further strengthened and should widen its root.
The another thing is just like the exhibit 5, which tends to maintain the balance between outsourcing vs. employee recruitment and exhibit 2 representing HR roles depending upon the hard and soft component as well as well as long-term strategy focus vs. daily operational, the technological aspect should also be addressed in the same manner. The long term impact of technology in the long term productivity should be assessed. What will happen to the employees who are replaced and what sort of impact would it create on the rest of the organization when their fellow employee leave should also be assessed before induction of the technology. Technology should be adapted such that there is the win-win situation for the organization as well as the employees.
Conclusion:
The article advocates for the modern approach of the strategic human resource management with evidence, however, there is yet very wide area to be captured as well the HRD are facing daily with new challenges. Technology has assisted the strategic human resource management pretty well, but there are risks that may pose the threat in future which should be identified by the SHRM for long term good. Further, while making HR decision, synchronization with central system is always better to other option however it depends on upon the nature of task and activities. There are many other issues which the traditional HR could not address however newer method are much efficient and which must be utilized to make the internal relation of an organization such as the link between executive members with line managers, inter-functional unit and so on much stronger and dense for enhanced performance. Similarly, SHRM should also strategically partner up with external partners according to need and opportunity. SHRM being very critical and sensitive issue, experts with very good knowledge in depth about human resource management and company should only be included in the SHRM team.
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