HRM B8204: Present and Emerging Human Resource Management Challenges

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HRM B8204 Present and Emerging Human Resource
Management Challenges

• Thursday January 12th, 2006

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Agenda

• Case selection
• Present and emerging HR challenges
• Discussion based on Chapter 1 of text
• Readings
• Rynes, Brown, Colbert (2002)
• Hammonds (2005)

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Cases

• Golden Thread Company
• A Dozen First Impressions
• The Trials and Tribulations of Performance
  Appraisal at Ford
• Learning Technologies in the Workplace SaskTel
• Career Change Setting a Different Course
• Smith Rubber

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HRM

• Human resource management (HRM) is defined as the
  policies, practices, and systems that influence
  employees behaviour, attitudes, and performance

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HR and Company Performance

• HRM has traditionally been viewed as a expense,
  rather than a source of value to the organization
• Human capital
• An organizations employees described in terms of
  characteristics that add economic value e.g.
  training, experience, insight, etc.
• Human resources
• Valuable
• Rare
• Cannot be imitated
• Have no good substitutes

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Impact of Human Resource Management
.
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Managerial Perspective

• Human Resources a major component of any
  managers job managing the people that comprise
  the organization
• Human Resources Strategy a deliberate use of
  people to accomplish the organizations mission

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Goals of HRM

• Explain how a firms HR influence performance.
• Describe how HR can cope with changes/trends.
• Distinguish between role of HR department of
  firms managers and Establish partnership
  between HR managers.
• Formulate and implement HR strategies that help
  achieve sustained competitive advantage.
• Identify HR strategies that fit business unit
  strategies.

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HRM Strategy

• Must be responsive overcome challenges
• Linked to business plans
• Developed used by line and HR managers
• Focused on quality, service, productivity,
  employee involvement, teamwork, and workforce
  flexibility
• Manner in which HR responsibilities of a
  management job are conducted are key to
  effectiveness

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HRM Strategy

• Most HRM programs, policies, and practices are
  adopted, developed, maintained, and improved in
  deference to research in HRM
• Usually because someone else is using it!
• Sound measurement is key to effective management
  - HRM managers should be able to evaluate their
  programs and alternatives
• Some would argue that HRM practitioners need to
  pay more attention to academic research

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Discrepancies Between Research Practice from
Bernardin (2002), Academy of Management

• Academic
• Realistic job previews reduce turnover
• Graphology is invalid dont use!
• Do not use traits on rating forms
• Train raters

• Practice
• Less than 20 of companies use RJP in high
  turnover jobs
• Graphology is on the rise in US
• 75 still use traits on rating forms
• Less than 30 do

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Practitioner vs. Academic

• Disconnect is related to different expectations
• Creation of theoretical versus pragmatic
  knowledge
• Use of data-supported versus logic-driven
  information
• Use of the scientific method versus case studies
• Prestige of academic-oriented versus
  practitioner-oriented journals
• The pressures of academic tenure versus the need
  for organizational effectiveness

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Rynes, Brown, Colbert (2002). Seven common
misconceptions about human resource practices
Research findings versus practitioner beliefs.
Academy of Management Executive

• Misconceptions
• Conscientiousness/Intelligence and Employee
  Performance
• Screening for Values vs. Intelligence
• Integrity Tests Lying
• Integrity Tests Racial Minorities
• Participating in Decision Making vs. Setting
  Performance Goals
• Training for Performance Appraisal
• Importance of Pay
• Are these valid misconceptions? Do they exist in
  practice?
• Explain the misconception vs. what research
  shows.
• Is it surprising?
• Briefly explain the recommendations regarding how
  the research findings can be implemented. Do you
  agree with these?

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The Challenges of Human Resource Management

• Competitive advantage belongs to companies that
  know how to attract, select, deploy, and develop
  talent.
• Competitive Advantage Through People
• While people have always been central to
  organization, today they have taken on an even
  more central role in building a firms
  competitive advantage (e.g., in knowledge-based
  industries such as software and information
  services, success increasingly depends on
  people-embodied know-how.)
• Nearly 80 of executives said the importance of
  HRM in their firms has grown substantially over
  the past ten years, and two-thirds said that HR
  expenditures are now viewed as a strategic
  investment rather than simply a cost to be
  minimized.

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Key HR Challenges

• Organizations that meet these challenges are
  likely to outperform those that do not
• Environment
• Organization
• Individual

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Environmental Challenges
External forces that affect the organizations
performance but are beyond the control of
management.

• Rapid Change
• Labour Force
• Aging Work Force
• Work Force Diversity
• Globalization
• Legislation
• Evolving Work Family Roles
• Increasing Importance of the Service Sector

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Age Distribution of Canadian Population, 2006
2016
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Organizational Challenges
Internal forces that affect the organizations
performance and are within the control of
management

• Competitive position
• Decentralization
• Downsizing
• Organizational Restructuring
• Self-Managed Work Teams
• The Growth of Small Business
• Organizational Culture
• Technology
• Unions
• Quality

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Individual Challenges
Human resource issues that address the decisions
most pertinent to individual employees.

• Matching people and organizations
• Ethics and social responsibility
• Productivity
• Empowerment
• Brain drain
• Changing Attitudes toward Work

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Hammonds (2005). Why we hate HR. Fast Company,
97, 40-47.

• Have HR organizations really ghettoized
  themselvesto the brink of obsolescence?
• Is HR really unsuited for raising the
  reputational and intellectual capital of the
  company?
• Do you buy the arguments put forth?

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For Next ClassStrategic Importance of HRM

• Chapter 3 of text
• Readings on reserve/electronically
• Pfeffer Veiga (1999)
• Hammonds (2005)