Chapter 3 The Changing Role of HRM: Achieving Impact through Adding Value

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Chapter 3The Changing Role of HRM Achieving
Impact through Adding Value
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Objectives of Chapter

• To outline the challenges and opportunities
  facing HR as a specialist function
• To critically assess influences affecting HRs
  strategic contribution
• To highlight the role of HR outside strategic
  integration
• To critically analyse the knowledge and skills
  required by HR specialists in a global economy

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HR as a Specialist Function

• The constant worry of all personnel
  administrators is their inability to prove that
  they are making a contribution to the enterprise.
  Their preoccupation is with the search for a
  gimmick that will impress their management
  associates. Their persistent complaint is that
  they lack status. Drucker, 1954
• It's an exciting time for people management and
  development professionals. We're making
  ever-greater contributions to our organisations,
  our people and to economic performance. And we
  have the evidence that what we do makes the
  winning difference. Armstong, 2007

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• . which one is right?
• Is there now more recognition for the HR function
  than before?

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The Context.

• Change provides the backdrop for business
  activity today
• HR practices are linked with many measures of
  business performance
• Employee capability has emerged as a crucial
  factor
• This context offers opportunities for visionary
  HR specialists able to perceive where effective
  people management will make a difference to their
  organisations
• Thus a clear step forward from the situation
  Drucker describes in the first quote.

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Yet What Do HR Specialists Actually Do?

• Best practice ideas suggest that HR specialists
• Develop and implement HR policy
• Advise line managers on the interpretation of
  policy and the legal framework
• Develop effective job structures
• Promote employee capability
• Envisage the future (planning)
• Enhance employee motivation
• Demonstrate HR contribution to business
  effectiveness

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Evidence from Employing Organisations.

• Job advertisements (in the UK) show that HR
  professionals fall into two categories
• Those performing operational roles useful and
  important activities maybe not influencing
  higher-level decision-making
• Those operating at a strategic level seeking HR
  specialists who are passionate about achieving
  business aims, creative and innovative,
  establishing development plans to support growth
  strategy
• Salaries in the UK are about double for the
  second category (no reason to imagine this would
  be different in other global contexts)

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Types of HR Activity

• Deviant innovator- business partner, clerk of
  works, handmaiden etc
• Legge (1978) suggested that personnel specialists
  should redefine organisational criteria of
  success (think of todays focus on CSR and
  sustainability)

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• Categorisations of HR have highlighted strategic
  versus operational focus
• Also, HRs propensity to engage with people as
  opposed to processes
• Ulricht offers an inspiring and sometimes
  disconcerting vision of the future of HR
• Each role has the potential to add value, but
  unless the contribution offered is substantive,
  HR risks being marginalised

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Tensions and Challenges for the Profession

• Has the HR role expanded to encompass a stronger
  strategic imperative?
• What can HR specialists do to enhance their
  status and contribution?

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The Research Evidence

• Caldwell (2002)
• In a study of 500 major UK organisations showed
  that HR professionals described themselves as
  Advisors, with 67 of sample also highlighting
  the Change Agent role
• Truss et al. (2002)
• in a qualitative longitudinal study of two
  organisations found that both contextual factors
  (how the HR team was expected to behave) and
  the personal attributes of HR specialists
  determined the extent of their contribution to
  strategic decision-making

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• Wright et al. (2002) found that HR was seen to
  contribute to service delivery rather than to
  strategic decision-making. The function was
  valued for this input, however
• These findings were also reported by Buyens De
  Vos (2001) who found that change management had
  become a major concern for top management.

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• There is a range of roles available and enacted,
  but HR has yet to achieve its full potential
• There is a gap between normative models of
  strategic HR and the behavioural reality of HR
  practice
• BUT recognition of HRs role does exist, and
  where HR plays a strategic role, it is because
  the HR specialists have been good at marketing
  their services and capitalising on success

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Factors Influencing the Strategic Role

• HR is constrained by the context within which it
  is located (Bach Della Rocca, 2000)
• This is especially so for public sector
  organisations institutional isomorphism
• Contested ownership of the HR agenda
• Capability and commitment of the senior
  management team
• The relationship between HR and other agents
  within the organisation

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Other Roles for HR?

• Such as employment law advice, welfare
  initiatives
• This area has in some cases expanded to reflect
• Trends in the external environment
• Demands and expectations of employees
• Further, some have argued that HR needs to retain
  its close links with employees
• Systematising and outsourcing HR tends to remove
  HR specialists from the people whose needs they
  have represented traditionally
• Welfare initiatives are more likely to take root
  where a business need can be demonstrated

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Knowledge

• Theory, models and techniques for managing
  performance, learning and development, reward and
  communication
• Understanding how to apply knowledge
  synergistically
• Knowledge of organisational structures and
  cultures
• Developing employees interest and enthusiasm for
  the brand what HR offers to the business and to
  the people it employs

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Skills

• Change management skills
• Encouraging ownership and recognising differences
  of opinion
• Developing future leaders
• Being good coaches
• Offering feedback
• Developing strategy, including scenario
  planning
• Marketing the HR contribution

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Developing Knowledge and Skills

• Update professional and theoretical knowledge
• The CIPD professional development framework
• Thinking performers
• Open to opportunities for learning in the
  workplace
• Having a mentor in a senior position
• Secondments, work shadowing and placement
  opportunities all allow understanding of the HR
  role and the challenges it faces

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• In the UK, The CIPD has developed a strong and
  supportive profile for both strategic and
  operational roles
• Membership 127,000 today
• Gained Chartered status in 2000
• Increased professionalism of HR (many employers
  demand CIPD accreditation)
• Apparently, more overseas students welcome CIPD
  accreditation for their home countries
• The CIPD is working to develop its international
  profile

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In Conclusion

• HR has an unprecedented opportunity to influence
  the strategic agenda, which has not been entirely
  realised
• Will HR be the function to take on board this
  responsibility?
• Needs to use its position with an overview of the
  organisation
• Knowledge and skill base of HR is unique
• The HR function has to go on to convince others
  of its ability to add value either operationally
  or strategically