...1 HR discretion: understanding line managers’ role in Human Resource Management Juan López-Cotarelo, Industrial Relations Research Unit, Warwick Business School Introduction Line managers play a central role in human resource management. In many organisations, they are charged with myriad HR-related tasks, such as filling out performance appraisal forms, interviewing candidates for employment, making salary increase recommendations and breaking employment-related news –good and bad- to employees. This paper investigates how managers carry out their HR activities. In the literature so far, the prevailing view has been that managers act primarily on behalf of the organisation, applying HR policy in ways by-and-large consistent with organisational procedures. My findings from a number of store visits at a leading UK fashion retailer, give support to a different view: that managers carry out HR activities as organisational actors who pursue a combination of organisational, departmental and individual goals. Crucial in my discussion is the concept of HR discretion. I define HR discretion as a manager’s capacity to influence his (her) team members’ HR outcomes, and their perceptions of those HR outcomes. HR discretion must be understood as a subset of overall managerial discretion 1 . Managerial discretion has been an important concept in the economics and management literatures, from very different perspectives. In economics, managerial discretion refers to the freedom managers have...
Words: 7839 - Pages: 32
...1. I worked at Merchandesing department in an E-Commerce company located in İstanbul for 8 months. My job title was Assistant Buyer and my primary duties were selecting textile products to be sold at the web site, making forecasts on budgeting and sales, deciding and making aggreements for new brands that have high potential . All the team members, including me had monthly sales and brand targets. Therefore, hiring matching employees for merchandesing department is very crucial. a) Our department’s roles in human resources management are explained below: * As a merchadesing department, we prepared an informative and descriptive presentation which explained the department’s duties, organization’s job titles, organizational relationship ( who is reporting to whom). For instance, there is a scheme which shows buyers firstly contact with the Planning Department for receiving budget. Then buyers visit suppliers and the main brands for selecting products according to given budget. After logistic department provides bought products to reach our warehouse. Then buyers contact with Production/ Studio Department for having products screened on the website. The other slides show the organizational relationship implying every team members’ job titles. For instance, as an assistant buyer, i was reporting to Buying Manager. A sales assistant was reporting to me. The buying manager was reporting to Head of Buying Manager and she was reporting to CEO. * As there are types of...
Words: 2681 - Pages: 11
...Chapter 1, Activity 4 – What HR Managers and Departments Do Today The assignment was to read several business publications, review their contents, and from that compile a list of what HR managers and departments do today. It’s easy to understands that HR managers and departments have a mired of completely different tasks they need to effectively perform. I had several takeaways from both the text and publications I read. The first was how extraordinary each HR representative must be in order to maintain efficiency and must have excellent multi-tasking skills; especially in smaller departments. Even to manage the outsourcing of some of their responsibilities still requires the knowledge and know-how to ensure it’s done correctly. The numerous articles I read support the varying topics HR managers need to track and many of them are constantly changing and/or evolving with new insights to consider. Here is the list I put together. “What HR Managers and Departments Do Today” 1. Defend its HR department business practices. 2. Advise senior leadership and managers. 3. Counsel and/or mediate with/for managers and employees. 4. Diligently keep up on new labor relations and compliance laws. 5. Employee training: new hire, diversity, EEO, etc. 6. Employee personal development, to include wellness programs. 7. Personnel and production analytics review. 8. Manage performance employee reviews, to include promotions and firing. 9. Execute and/or...
Words: 1277 - Pages: 6
...GLORYSON B CHALIL BATCH – PGCHRM – 13 SUBMITTED BY : DIPTI SAWANT SMS ID – 110293; SID – RH12075 STUDY CENTER – MUMBAI, SHIVAJI PARK The HR Colleagues whom I have identified as role model are: 1) Mr. Manish Kumar – President HR; Dhanalaxmi Bank (I have interacted with him during my stint with Alkem Labs. 2) Ms. Aarti Mudaliar – HR Business Partner; Novartis (I have interacted with her while assessing her for the opportunity in Novartis India). The HR Colleagues whom I would prefer avoiding working with 1) Mr. Alfred Mendes – Manager HR; PSS India Pvt Ltd. 2) Mr. Ashim Banerjee – Director HR; Wanbury (have interacted with him as a client of PSS) The working style of all the above mentioned professionals is very diverse from each other: Mr. Manish Kumar – President HR; Dhanalaxmi Bank * Mr. Manish Kumar was the Director HR in Alkem, when I was working there as a Brand Manager. * Manish Kumar has an ever smiling face in the organization. He has a warm and welcoming personality. He was down to earth, passionate, executioner with strategic bent of mind, relationship - oriented, and had a personal rapport with people across functions. He had a knack of making people comfortable around him. * Alkem Labs is a typical family run organization...
Words: 1541 - Pages: 7
...Chapter 6 HR MetRics and WoRkfoRce analytics Kevin D. Carlson anD MiChael J. Kavanagh EDITORS’ NOTE The capacity to manage is limited by the accessible information in our possession. Research on goal setting confirms that being able to articulate the specific goal for a task and the level of the goal we want to achieve enhances performance of that task. Better information about the expectations of customers, the actions of competitors, and the state of the economy provides strong support for the strategic direction of organizations. Information about levels of output, for example, numbers of defects and efficiency of processes, positions line managers to produce high-quality products in the right amounts at the right time to meet customer needs. The same is true for the effective management of human capital in organizations. As discussed in this chapter, effective approaches to the measurement of human capital and the impact of people on organization processes, for example, HR programs such as recruiting, will enable both HRM professionals and line managers to utilize the human capital in organizations effectively. This measurement is accomplished by focusing on the development of systems of workforce analytics and supporting HR metrics that meet the needs of organization decision makers. This chapter offers a brief history of the efforts involved in the development of HR metrics and workforce analytics and of how these efforts have been enhanced by the advent of integrated...
Words: 9337 - Pages: 38
...and regulations are communicated to employees timely and correctly and ensuring workplace safety. Aon Corporation is the nation's largest insurance broker and a company that I recently worked at for 11 years. This organization has gone through many changes including buying additional companies, created centralized service centers and sending some of the work offshore to India. There was also a reduction in how the human resources department was structured. At one point, there was a human resources staff in each of the offices worldwide. In 2001, they decided to make a more stream lined approach, and move the main human resources department to the Chicago, IL headquarters, and then create smaller departments within four service centers located in Glenview, IL, New York, Houston and Los Angeles. In addition, there was still the call center employees that handled the routine payroll and benefits questions. When I first started with the company in 1999, each office pretty much was independent of the headquarters. If you had an HR related issue, it was addressed at the local level. Employees felt that they could get answers quickly because they had a department within their own building they go to and get immediate attention. In 2001 when that changed, employees began to get frustrated because the local HR...
Words: 1162 - Pages: 5
...Family Restaurant Business Assessment Nathan Przybyl-Gallagher DeVry University Introduction As most of us know, being any type of manager no matter what is being managed is a lot of work and takes a big role, even more being an HR manager. The HR manager Jay Morgan, wants to reduce or just minimize some of his HR tasks issues that are not the easiest to solve overnight because there’s so many things that Jay has to think about not only for himself, but for the family restaurant and the employees he has working there full time and part time. Being the HR consultant of this project, he has chosen me to come up with a proposal to make things run a little smoother and less expensive of course. The name of the business I will help assist with is called Castles Family Restaurant in which is a restaurant made up of 8 locations with approximately 300-340 part-time employees and only 40% are full-time employees. This isn’t a small type of business we are working with. There are so many guidelines, rules and restrictions in managing any type of Food Chain Company. There are so many things to think about as a HR manager of a restaurant. Not just the restaurant itself but the environment, industry, and the work of the employees. There is definitely more important decisions to be made, pressure, and work and responsibility. Being a HR manager, there is a considerable amount of planning that goes into all the business travel. Even though, the high costs of the gas prices and travel...
Words: 609 - Pages: 3
...George E. Davis - INTRODUCTION Human Resource (HR) planning is the formal process of linking business strategy with human resource practices. Approaches to human resource planning can be arrayed along a continuum ranging from an "add-on" to business strategy to a separate planning process (Figure 1). At one end of the continuum, HR planning is little more than a postscript to a business planning process. After engaging in an extensive business planning process in which business product, market, and technological directions are defined, questions about HR practices are raised. These questions deal with the structure, competencies, accountabilities, organization, and leadership required to make the strategy work. At this end of the continuum, HR issues are an afterthought to business strategy. They receive relatively little attention and become an appendage to business planning. In the extreme, line managers consider the HR questions as an afterthought to "real" planning efforts. At the other end of the continuum, HR planning is a distinct and separate planning process. The HR department not only initiates the effort for HR planning, but executes and administers the plan. In this case the HR plan is more a process for shaping priorities for the HR function than for the business. In extreme cases, HR plans are created with little or no awareness or input by line managers. While the outcome may be an elegant document, these isolated HR plans add little value to the business because...
Words: 4115 - Pages: 17
...development project is examined using strategic exchange to highlight important social considerations of organisational, group and individual projects. As employing organisations and their environments become increasingly complex, their managers face growing difficulties in coping with workforces spread across various countries, cultures and political systems. Given such trends, information technologies have considerable potential as tools to be used by managers generally and in human resourcing functions particularly. But information technologies are not simple and uncomplicated tools to be picked up by managers and others and utilised without debate, reflection and contestation. They are tools that are used by human beings who have personal and group interests, values and identities to develop and defend. And, at a more structural level, there are numerous influences on the way that such technologies are incorporated into the strategies and plans of contemporary organisations. These include the changing structures of the organisation, the increase in partnerships and collaborations, the globalisation of markets and suppliers, changing social values and developments in communications and information technologies themselves (Mayo, 1992). Managers are frequently advised that to enhance organisational effectiveness, they should establish effective data management systems that will facilitate decision making at strategic and operational levels in organisations (Doz and...
Words: 9829 - Pages: 40
...CIPD HR Profession Map and HR Professionalism Looking at the two core professional areas of the map in more detail, the first Insights, strategy and solutions, is about developing and understanding the organisation by using strategies and solutions that can be used now and in the future. The second, Leading HR, is about taking a lead in HR by being a role model in order to maximise the contribution HR can bring by supporting, developing and measuring others across the whole of the organisation. The core professional areas have two things that a HR specialist needs to understand which are “Activity: what you need to do and Knowledge: what you need to know” CIPD (2014c pg 10 and 12). Leading HR 2.13.2 says “Manage the delivery and evaluation...
Words: 922 - Pages: 4
...Certificate in HR Practice Unit 1 – Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources Practitioner Assessment Activity – 4DEP-F301A-(HR) Issued on 12th January 2015 Name: Activity 1 – Understanding the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to be an effective HR practitioner Summary of the CIPD’s HR Professional Map (HRPM) The HR Professional Map (HRPM) was introduced by the CIPD to help HR professionals to find their current levels of professional competence in their HR profession and to help them find their potential and ways to improve in the future. It will do this by asking HR professionals to rate their performance from 1-7 in their specific area of work, for example “Resource and Talent Planning” and also to rate their performances for specific behaviours, for example “Role Model”. Once this is done a report will be produced and will get recommendations for the individual on how to improve in the future. The professional map is made up of 2 core essential professional areas “Insights, strategy and solutions” and “Leading HR”, 10 professional areas for example “Resource and Talent Planning” and “Employee Relations”, these topics deal with the more diverse side of HR, 8 behaviours, which HR professional are expected to show in daily work life, for example, “Curious” and “Role Model”. The map is completed by the use of Bands, 1 – 4. This allows the HR professional select where they are in their current HR profession, Band 1 being the start and Band...
Words: 1168 - Pages: 5
...person in the mine on his shift. Norman took one of the battery-operated jeeps used to transport personnel and supplies in and out of the mine and went to the area where Tom was assigned. Upon arriving, he saw Tom lying on an emergency stretcher. Norman stopped his jeep a few yards from where Tom was sleeping and approached him. “Hey, you asleep?” Norman asked. Tom awakened with a start and said, “No, I wasn’t sleeping.” Norman waited for Tom to collect his senses and then said, “I could tell that you were sleeping. But that’s beside the point. You weren’t at your workstation. You know that I have no choice but to fire you.” After Tom had left, Norman called his mine foreman and asked him to come in and complete the remainder of Tom’s shift. The next morning, Norman had the mine HR manager officially terminate Tom. As part of the standard procedure, the mine HR manager notified the regional HR manager that Tom had been fired and gave the reasons for firing him. The regional HR manager asked the mine HR manager to get Norman on the line. The regional HR manager said, “Norm, you know Tom is Eustus Frederick’s brother-in-law, don’t you?” Frederick...
Words: 1060 - Pages: 5
...Week Three O*NET Assignment Cyndi Meredith HR Management MGMT 410 September 21, 2014 James Mullins Week Three O*NET Assignment After reviewing the O*NET website I came up with the below information about my interests, skills, and information on the jobs that matched these specific items. Depending on the zone I was interested in, I was a good match for an HR Manager, or a CEO position. I think that the CEO position may be a great job for someone, but not for me. The HR Manager position is more of a job that would appeal to me. I do not think that as a CEO I would have enough interaction with the front line employee, these is more of my likening, as the HR Manager I would be prone to meet those needs. I do not mind being in the office for most of my daily chores, but I would much rather get out on the floor and talk to the employees, I do not see this happening as the CEO, or not as much as the HR Manager. According to the O*NET website the CEO position offered above average opportunities in Minnesota, Kansas, and Illinois, this is only three out of quite a few other states. I was surprised at the location of the above average locations, I thought that there would be higher opportunities on the West Coast or East Coast for this position rather than the Midwest? The average salary for this position was pretty good though, $171,000. The HR Manager only offered above average opportunities in three states, they were the state of Washington, Minnesota, and New York. This...
Words: 638 - Pages: 3
...Management and Education 2013 New HR organizational structures in Czech and Slovak organizations Marek Striteskya* a University of Econonics, Prague, W. Churchill Sq. 4, 130 67 Prague, Czech Republic Abstract The paper deals with Human Resource Organizational Structures in Czech and Slovak organizations, reflecting new trends which are related to HR Business Partner model. HR organizational structure is the framework within a human resources department that divides the decision making functions within HR into specific groups with distinct job functions. HR Business Partner model reflects modern expectations arising from new roles of human resources managers in organizations which include its strategic consequences, change support and also its abilities of HR systems development and improvement of employee engagement. The paper in its first part describes basic principles of new roles of human resource departments in organizations based on HRBP concept and also new competencies required. In the second part the paper presents situation in these aspects in organizations from different sectors of the Czech and Slovak economy (especially secondary and tertiary sector), benefits of the HR department transformation and some conclusions drawn from the analysis of data obtained from qualitative and quantitative survey. It also compares specific situations and documents specific applications of these new trends with more or less developed HR organizational structures. The contribution...
Words: 4993 - Pages: 20
...The manager that I interviewed works for a company that specializes in the sales of orthodontic equipment to dental companies across the nation. They target all dental distribution companies as well as privately owned dental businesses. They do not make the product themselves but they are a direct purchaser of these orthodontic products and they then turn around and sell their inventory to larger distributors. The reason I choose this business is that I figured it would be interesting to understand the views of a human resource manager of a company that is so spread out similar to me. There is so much more run around than with a normal company that has all its employees at one site everyday. The majority of the communication is done through personal meetings and teleconferencing. The manager that I interviewed is Markeia Keese. She is in his early thirties and has worked at this company for about 5 years. I contacted Markeia by phone and asked if I could set up an interview for a class project, she was very accommodating, but there was some difficulty due to schedule conflicts for the both of us. I immediately got a sense that she really felt it was appropriate to treat people right, which is a key factor in managing in HR. Most HR managers I’ve encountered enjoy working with people and therefore the people who become HR managers tend to be more people friendly. I asked Markeia a series of questions that I had prepared for the interview. As the interview started...
Words: 1422 - Pages: 6
