Human Resource Management - Case Study Example

BA (HRM) Year Unit: Human Resource Management Fajer Danish Contents Contents 2 Introduction: 3 Literature Review: 5 Case Study and Its critical Analysis: 6 Recommendations: 9 Conclusion: 10 Many organisations claim to be using "soft" HRM theory and practice whilst in reality they are using "hard" HRM. Using examples from your experience or HRM literature illustrate how and why this might be the case. Introduction: Human Resource Management is a very important and significant driver of any organisation’s overall success and productivity. The major functions of HRM can be classified as hard or soft HRM. The basic functions of HRM which are planning of workforce, job specification, selections, recruitment, compensations are included in the hard HRM. On the other side, soft HRM include organisational and career development, training of employees and building relationships with stakeholders. Conclusively, the hard HRM are the fundamental functions related to the work force while the soft HRM are the advanced functions which are more focused on achieving the organisation’s long term objectives. In today’s corporate world, since human resource to a large degree determines the success of an organisation, it is important to take into account the work of both the hard and soft HRM. Different studies have proved that the soft HRM practices have not been effectively used in the practice. They tend to be more theoretical except for their utility in some of the successful organisations. This gap between the theory and the practice has been extensively studied. Birchfield (2003) states that there are a number of approaches related to HRM’s professional functions and their significance in achieving the objective of the organisations. (mention at least one of these approaches to clarify your point) However, Becker, et al (2001) claims that there is also evidence of the fact that the HRM has failed to work in the fields of strategic management, performance management and leadership building (soft HRM) and has been more focused on building and sustaining the workforce (hard HRM) (would be nice to put an example at least). These empirical survey studies (where are these empirical studies?) also show the future of HRM profession in the global context. It has been proven that in USA, HRM has a more hard approach and primarily focuses on employee performance and benefits while in Europe the HR management has a more soft focus (Sanchez and Kepir-Sinangil 2003). The research on soft and hard HRM has greatly contributed in determining the specific components that makes an organization work towards achieving its goals (Nel et al., 2005). The functions of HRM are constantly being changed and altered. It is therefore necessary to investigate what lies ahead. This paper attempts to gain clarity as to what are the current trends of HR management and what does the future hold for HRM. The current paper takes in to account the utility of both hard and soft human resource management models. It examines and probes the soft and hard HRM theory and practice to find out contradictions in the organisation’s claim of their utility. The literature reviewing basically supports the gap in the reality of the hard HRM and soft HRM. This paper will contribute to the debate on the organisation’s false claim on the use of soft or hard HRM practices and their implications. Literature Review: The hard approach of HRM is basically aligned with the strategic HRM and is more focused and carried out by top management. It does not have much regard towards investment in human resource (Schuler & Jackson 2005). The study of Beaver, et al. (2003) gave the suggestion that the human resource managers should work to create and align their strategies with that of the business. The HR policies should help support the business strategy. According to their study it is only possible to maintain and sustain the success of an organisation by formulating and implementing such HR strategies that drive the business strategy along with it. The business strategy and the HR strategy should be a perfect and tight fit (Lipiec, 2001; Kane, 2001). It was further verified by the Jayne (2002) who studied the organisation’s behavior and came up with the statement that the tight fit between the HR policies and the HR policies(please check this) also helped in coping with the external forces that were constantly influencing the smooth running of the organisation. Larson and Brewster (2003) were also of the point of view that most of the HRM line managers did not acquire the soft HRM skills. The future role and function of HR profession becomes more complicated in this regard. The views of Beaver et al., 2003 further validated that the HR managers should assume a panoramic view of their responsibilities and training to help advance their organisations on the way to success. The soft approach like the hard HRM approach has been the key element to study and analyze. The soft HRM is basically a method of increasing the commitment of the employees, their participation and involvement. The employee commitment is expected to be followed by the organisational success and the effectiveness. Walton (1995) was of the view that if a model does not take employee commitment into account, it cannot be expected to excel amongst its competitors. According to Walton the managers have either of two choices - to impose control or elicit commitment. (Your tense are fighting each other (present and past) What I know is that if it just an article it must be present tense but if it is an empirical study, past tense should be used. Please ask your teacher to confirm). The research of Jayne (2002) and Ison and Barton (2003) further proved that different organisations can be successful if they make use of a blend of both soft and hard HRM. The trend and advancement of technology and many other factors are influencing the basic HR activities such as recruitment, payroll, performance evaluation and training. It can be said that the major HR functions needs to be reviewed and retooled in order to make it an effective business strategy. It can also be categorised as a “soft” approach model (Jayne 2002). Case Study and Its critical Analysis: A study of Australian organisations was carried by making use of annual reports of stock exchange. Additionally, the organizational reality in terms of soft and hard HRM was also assessed by making use of Australian workforce survey. The results of these two surveys and analysis determined the gap between the theory and practices of soft and hard HRM in Australian organisations. The following factors determined by Truss et al. (1997) were examined to see whether the organisations were using soft or hard HRM. 1. Training imparted on the employees (soft HRM) 2. The extent of communication within the organization (soft HRM) 3. Integration of HR policies with the business strategies (hard HRM) 4. The determination of work targets (Hard HRM) 5. The flexibility potential of the organization (Hard HRM) The following table shows the variables defining hard and soft HRM. It also shows how they were made operational to help analyze the gap in the hard and soft HRM practices of the organisations. Soft HRM Hard HRM Annual Reports Direct references to value of and practices to encourage: Employees as a competitive advantage. Employee involvement, participation and communication to derive commitment Training to make the employees more valuable to the business. Direct references to values of and practices to encourage: Close integration of human “resources” with business strategy Cost of employment Regarding employees as a part of production Surveys measures which encourage: Employees as a source of competitive advantage. Employee involvement, participation and communication to derive commitment Training to make the employees more valuable to the organisation. Measures which encourage: Close integration of human “resources” with business strategy Cost of employment Regarding employees as a component of production The two scales on which the organisations were evaluated were hard and soft HRM practices. The analysis and evaluation of reports and the surveys of these organisations revealed that does in fact there exists a gap between the claim and reality of the hard and soft HRM practices prevailing in most of the organisations. One of the soft HRM versions is that the commitment on the part of the employees will be double fold if they are allowed to make their own decisions and have control over their work. The trust and the worthiness will work to increase their commitment to the work. The soft model also indicated ample communication between the employees and the management. The study found proof of the fact that the employees did indeed commit themselves better if they were provided with enough control and autonomy. The study also looked in to one of the hard HRM component; linking people management to business objectives. In the organisations that were studied there was no indication of any link between the business and HR strategies. In the annual reports of most of the organisations there were references made to the overall business strategies but the evidence of link was found in a very few. So, a conscious HRM/Business strategy was greatly missing. Another hard HRM component that was taken into account was treating the employees as a source to increase output and minimize cost. Most of the organisation was also seen to working well in this department. The employees were not treated as a headcount and their role was very diverse and ample training was imparted on them to make them competitive. The survey also proved that the soft HRM variables were also increasing but they were largely constrained. The training, employee involvement and communication always had a context of hard HRM i.e. productivity improvement. Recommendations: The success rate of HR professionals will greatly be increased if they are willing to carry out their functions in a visionary manner. The HRM functions should also incorporate alignment of human resource policies with that of business strategies. The employees can be prompted to commit themselves to the organisation with the help of training, education and ample autonomy regarding their work. The productivity improvement, a function of soft HRM, has been utilized to increase the quantity of work done. For this purpose, working hours and work load has been increased and actualization of work has accelerated. While this has all helped in increasing the productivity and final outcome, it has added to the dissatisfaction and stress of the employees which needs to be tackled too. More research about the gap between the claim and reality of the organisations regarding soft and hard HRM needs to be done. The HR professionals need to become leaders in their fields and work to optimize the research, theory and practical implication of their work. Conclusion: Human Resource Management to a large degree determines the success or the failure of any organisation. The HRM functions can be categorized by either hard or soft. The hard HRM are the fundamental functions related to the work force while on the other side, the soft HRM are the advanced functions which are more focused on achieving the organisation’s long term objectives. The present research paper examined and probed the soft and hard HRM theory and practice to find out the contradictions in an organisation’s claim in their use and practice. It was concluded that most of the organisation claim to be making use of the soft HRM when in reality they are more focused on hard HRM. (The words that you have used here were already used in the body of your paper-must change) References Beaver, B., Nel, P.S. & du Plessis, A.J. (2003) Human resource management goals and roles: A New Zealand and South African comparison for the first decade of the new millennium. Proceedings of the 17th annual conference of the Australian New Zealand Association of Management, Freemantle, 5 – 7 December Birchfield, R. (2003) The future of HR. What are the critical issues? Management 50(7): 45- 48. Becker, B.E., Huselid, M.A. & Ulrich, D. (2001) The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy and Performance. Boston, Harvard Business School Press. Ison, J. & Barton P. (2003) Future Fillips. Employment Review, Australia 1(1): 34-35. Jayne, V. (2002) At the crossroads. Is Human Resource Management on the right tract? And where exactly is it headed? Management 49: 26- 30 Kane, B. (2001) HRM and trends in management: Travelling a well-worn path? New Zealand: Auckland. Paper presented to 15th Annual ANZAM Conference. 6-8 Dec Lipiec, J. (2001) Human Resource Management Perspective at the turn of the Century, Public Personnel Management 30(2): 137-45. Larsen, H. H. & Brewster, C. (2003) Line management responsibility for HRM. What is happening in Europe? Employee Relations 25(3): 228-44. Nel, P.S., Marx, A.E. & du Plessis, A.J. (2005) The future context of work in the business environment in South Africa: Some empirical evidence. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences 8(2): 18-32. Truss, C., Gratton, L., Hope-Hailey, V., McGovern, P. & Stiles, P. (1997) Soft and hard models of human resource management: A reappraisal. Journal of Management Studies 34(1): 53-73. Sanchez, J.I. & Kepir-Sinangil, H. (2003) Scanning the environment of human resources management in Europe and in the U.S.: So far and yet so close, The International Journal of Organizational Analysis. 11(2): 153-60. Walton, R. E. (1995) From control to commitment in the workplace, Harvard Business Review, 63, 2, 77-84. Read More