CONTENT

1. Business context - evidence

2. Business context & HR role: Kraft case studies

3. Theory – perspectives on HR role

1

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand and appraise what is required to be

an effective HR practitioner (mdf LO1)

2. Understand and evaluate the HR role in

responding and becoming integral to business

contexts (mdf LO 2/ 3)

3. Connect and apply theory to HR practice in the

workplace (mdf LO 1- 3)

2

HIGH ROAD HRM

Studies show that it is beneficial to adopt a ‘high road’

HRM strategy.

This is characterized by high training, high

involvement, high rewards and quality commitment.

It requires a belief by senior management that people

represent the key source of competitive advantage.

The continuing development of people should be seen

as a vital feature of strategy in both its formation and

implementation.

But many firms do not view people in this way,

preferring to see HRM issues as a third-order issue.

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This is characterized by low pay, low job security and work intensification.

When faced with difficulties, many organizations move to the ‘hard’ version of HRM in which HR activities are designed to respond to strategy – people being viewed as a resource whose cost must be controlled.

HRP in this version is more concerned with the right number of people in the right place at the right time who can be utilized in the most cost-effective manner.

With pressure to sustain or increase profits, employees are more likely to be treated as a ‘number’ in the quest to reduce costs.

This continues despite the realization that losing staff could have negative consequences for the organization – in loss of skill, knowledge, wisdom and productivity.

‘Low Road’ HRM Strategy

4

THE ROLE OF HRM IN ORGANIZATIONS

Legge (1978) suggested the following categories:

Conformist innovator - encourages the adaption of HR

practice, but within the current rules, status quo and

management style

Deviant innovator - encourages the adaption of HR practices,

but in ways that go beyond the current rules, status quo and

management style

Problem solver – does not attempt to develop HR practice

beyond dealing with problems as they arise

5

HOW HR CAN MAKE AN IMPACT ON

ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Develop and successfully implement high performance work practices, particularly those concerned with job and work design, flexible working, resourcing, employee development, reward and giving employees a voice.

Formulate a clear vision and set of values (the ‘big idea’) and ensure that it is embedded, enduring, collective, measured and managed.

Develop a positive psychological contract and means of increasing the motivation and commitment of employees.

Formulate and implement policies that meet the needs of individuals and ‘create a great place to work’.

Provide support and advice to line managers on their role in implementing HR policies.

Manage change effectively.

Source: John Purcell et al (2003) Inside the Box: How people management impacts on organizational performance, CIPD

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Core group Primary workers

Internal labour market Functional flexibility

Self-employed

First peripheral group Secondary workers

Internal labour market Numerical and functional flexibility

Secondary peripheral group Secondary workers

External labour market Numerical flexibility

Increased outsourcing

Agency workers

Atkinson 1984 The Flexible Firm

Sub- contracting

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THE PEOPLE PERFORMANCE MODEL

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Involvement and

Communication

Right People and

Skills

Right work

environment

Right organisation

and roles

Front Line

Manager

Ability

Motivation

Opportunity

Performance

Management

Engagement

Effort

Outcome

HRM MODELS: STOREY

Strategic

Non-interventionary Interventionary

Tactical

CHANGE MAKERS ADVISERS

REGULATORS HANDMAIDENS

Source: Storey, J (1992) New Developments in the Management of Human Resources, Blackwell

• Change makers (interventionary/strategic) – close to the HRM model.

• Advisers (non-interventionary/strategic) who act as internal consultants, leaving much of HR practice to line

managers.

• Regulators (interventionary/tactical) who are ‘managers of discontent’ concerned with formulating and monitoring

employment rules.

• Handmaidens (non-interventionary/tactical) who merely provide a service to meet the needs of line managers.

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HRM MODELS: REILLY

STRATEGIST/INNOVATOR

ADVISER/CONSULTANT

ADMINISTRATOR/CONTROLLER

CONTRIBUTION

TIME ORIENTATION

Short Long

Strategic

Tactical

The changing role of the HR practitioner

Source: Reilly, P (2000) HR Services and the Re-alignment of HRM, Institute for Employment Studies 10

Caldwell concentrates on the role of HR managers as change agents and has

identified four types:

1. Change champions who envision, lead or implement strategic change.

2. Change adapters who act as ‘reactive pragmatists’ who adapt the vision to the

realities of the organization and view organizational change as a slow iterative

process.

3. Change consultants who implement a discrete change project or the key

stages of an HR change initiative.

4. Change synergists who strategically co-ordinate, integrate and deliver large-

scale and multiple-change projects across the whole organization.

HRM MODELS: CALDWELL

Source: Caldwell, R (2002) Champions, adapters, consultants and synergists: the new change agents in HRM,

Human Resource Management Journal, 11(3) 11

CURRENT VS. FUTURE STATE OF HR

Strategic Partner Change Agent

Administrative Expert Employee Advocate

35

20

25 40

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ARMSTRONG (2009, 123)

Summary of conclusions on the role of HR

practitioners, Caldwell (2004)

1. There is the issue of ‘powerlessness’ or the marginality of

HR practitioners in management decision-making

processes, especially at a strategic level.

2. The HR function has an inward-looking tendency to

identify professional expertise mainly with

administrative concerns over who controls HR activities,

rather than questions of HR practices or who has

responsibility for implementing HR policy.

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