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Line Manager

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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 to pursue their own objectives (pay, power, status and prestige) rather than shareholder interests: high discretion means managers are able to pursue personal objectives without being caught or punished (Williamson, 1963). In the management literature by contrast managerial discretion refers to the choice of actions available to managers in the pursuit of organisational goals: high

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