HRM 'Managing Human Resources' Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

HRM 'Managing Human Resources' - Assignment Example The HRM function is of particular importance in the post-industrial economy (Harris, 2003) In this emerging system, the critical factor in production has shifted from machines and equipment to the "knowledge" worker (Marchington, 2002). That is, service has replaced production as the driving force in the economy, and the prominent way value is added is through the expertise of knowledge workers and the ministrations of service providers. In systems like this, it becomes even more important to obtain and use the full talents of all employees in the organization. Thus, the skilful adoption and use of HRM policies becomes a significant lever through which to move and direct the performance of the organization. As Gibb (2000) noted, HRM is really a series of policy choices about how employees are to be treated, paid, and worked. These policies will in turn impact and condition the nature of the employment relationship. Different policies lead to different outcomes in employee commitment, competence, and congruence with organizational goals. Likewise, each policy choice presents the decision maker with a distinctive cost and benefit alternative. For example, compensation policy choices to pay either at the low, average, or high end of the labour market have rather dramatic implications for employee commitment to the organization and for costs to the employer. The fundamental rationale for effective management of human resources should be to identify and implement those policies, programs, and procedures that will yield the desired levels of loyalty, skill, and direction in the most cost-effective manner possible. In this sense, HRM offers to organizational decision makers a set of people in vestment opportunities. Managing human resources effectively has never been as important as it is today and will be tomorrow. In today's service economy of knowledge-based, high-discretion jobs, the commitment and competence of employees can spell the difference between those organizations that win and those that are merely in the race. Establishing policies, programs, and practices that produce these results on a cost-effective basis and comply with laws and regulations is a complex undertaking. HRM can and should play a strategic role in the management of the organization. According to Chandy (2001), a large number of organizations have encountered severe difficulties finding personnel in recent years. We have little knowledge about how organizations are coping with these difficulties and are going about hiring staff. Considering the supply/demand trends of the last few decades - when the labour market used to be a buyers' market and a considerable pool of unemployed formed a buffer that could absorb cyclic fluctuations in labour demand - it is almost not astounding that most studies focused on employees' job seeking activities. (Chandy, 2001, pp 403-405) Research on the theoretical and empirical facet of organizations' behaviour to find appropriate staff, has studied first and foremost the selection behaviour: how to select personnel from a group of applicants. Nearly all vacancies are filled from a group of applicants that is created soon after posting the vacancy. On account of the economic expansion of the first