Human Resource Management Practices
Human Resource Management Practices
of government departments and agencies. Because of the job security it provided but also the status it afforded in an uncertain world. Public service employers likewise could anticipate that there would be no shortage of potential recruits and little competition from other sectors for the highest qualified and skilled staff or with regard to terms and conditions of employment. The contemporary human resource situation for public service managers is very different. During the 1990s, Ireland has experienced a sustained and unprecedented economic boom which should last into the next century (see Sweeney 1998). This economic growth, combined with fundamental social, demographic and cultural change, has serious implications for how public services are organized and the demands placed upon them. In real terms, taxation and public expenditure remain very high and the GNP per head is still below the EU average. While public sector borrowing fell from 20 per cent of GNP in 1981 to the current level of two to three per cent, public spending only adds to living standards if the money is well spent (see Sweeney 1998). Gray (1997) urges prudent control of public spending to ensure that any downturn in the economy can be accommodated. Proposals are aimed at reducing bureaucracy in the civil service and towards the provision of excellent service to the public through a customer-focused culture, the effective and efficient use of resources and better policy coordination between departments. There are considerable challenges facing the civil service in moving from the traditional model of tight central control, separation of functions and diffusion of responsibility towards a model based around strategic goal setting, effective management systems, greater development of responsibility and accountability, ensuring value for money and decentralization. It identified the need for a move
from a situation where local authorities were not responsible for many public services, to effective local government which would enable local affairs to be settled through citizen participation and local control of local services. Its vision for bringing together as many agencies of government as practicable to focal points within reach of the people have developed into proposals for one stop shops outlined in recent proposals for reform (see Humphreys 1998). The Devolution Commission Interim Report (1996) specifically recommends a three-tier structure for local government which would separate strategic planning from day-to-day management. The challenges facing the task force overseeing the implementation of proposed changes include ensuring equity through arrangements for the Commissioning and funding of services, and arrangements for funding national specialism. Likewise, the principles of equity, quality and accountability dominate proposals for future health service developments set out in Shaping a Healthier Future, which aim to manage health and social services with a view to maximizing health and social gain for the population. There are particular difficulties in determining the lessons to be learned from the experiences of reform in other countries. HR planning is essential for maintaining quality public services, attracting high quality staff and ensuring continued commitment from public servants to reform.
The most prominent line of research in modern human resource management (HRM) is the relationship between HRM practices and firms financial performance. Two questions dominate this literature: first, what package of HRM practices optimizes performance? And, second, what are the channels of influence through which HRM practices affect performance? This makes three innovative contributions to the field of human resource management. First, an HRM frequency distribution is presented that depicts the key empirical facts that form the center of research in the field; second, a new microeconomics-based model is presented that develops a new theoretical and empirical tool the HRM demand function -- and uses this tool to predict the performance maximizing level of HRM expenditure; and third, a unique data set is used to estimate the parameters of the HRM input demand function for several American hundred companies. A variety of new insights and implications emerge.
In the 21st century HRM will be influenced by following factors, which will work as various issues affecting its strategy:
Size of the workforce. Rising employees' expectations Drastic changes in the technology as well as Life-style changes. Composition of workforce. New skills required.
Impact of new economic policy. Political ideology of the Government. Culture prevailing in the organization etc.
The model treats HRM as a factor input into production and posits that firmlevel differences in the marginal revenues and costs of HRM practices lead t0systematic differences in HRM adoption and expenditure. The transmission mechanism (black box) between HRM and firm performance is also modeled and direct and indirect effects are distinguished. These insights are formally developed in terms of an HRM demand curve and HRM input demand function. None of these concepts and ideas has been formally presented heretofore in the management literature. They are not claimed to provide a complete theory of HRM; they are claimed, however, to significantly advance the state of HRM theorizing relative to the extant body of theory. On the empirical side, this paper is the first to estimate an HRM input demand function.
This empirical approach is substantially different from that followed in the standard HRM-firm performance literature. Both models assume firms adopt HRM practices to maximize performance; this model explicitly solves for the optimal HRM input bundle as a function of various independent variables and then directly estimates this relationship, the conventional approach, on the other hand, derives hypotheses from universalistic and RVB arguments that most likely have limited
domain and then tests these hypotheses in a regression model that is not only an indirect specification (making performance the dependent variable when theory suggests the relationship is more the reverse performance concerns drive choice of HRM practices) but also potentially misleading (since the regression coefficients on HRM practices are widely hypothesized in the literature to be positive when economic reasoning suggests they may well be zero, particularly in competitive equilibrium).
Modeling the Firms Demand for HRM Practices Following the mainline of the HRM-firm performance literature, assume the firms short-run objective is maximum financial return, which for simplicity treat as maximum profit (Box all, 2007). This assumption formally limits model to private sector for-profit firms, although would not be surprised if many of the implications and predictions of the model also apply to non-profit organizations. The key analytical innovation is treat HRM practices as a factor input in production. That is, the firms output is assumed produced with capital, labor, and HRM practices. Thus, the firms optimal expenditure on HRM is determined by the same marginality pedecision rule found throughout microeconomics to maximize profit, keep investing in more HRM as long as the marginal revenue gained exceeds the marginal cost incurred and stop when the two become equal. This basic insight is not new -- Jones and Wright (1992) discuss an economicsbased approach along this line and Kaufman (2004) further formalizes it. This paper builds on this earlier work in three regards: first, the microeconomics-based model of HRM is further formalized and developed; second, it is used to derive an
HRM input demand function; and, third, the HRM input demand function is then fit to empirical data.
In the modern era of management employees of the organization are not treated as resource, they are treated as assets of the organization. Because modern people management is not only restricted getting, maintaining and retaining people right man on the right job. Modern people management has to nurture the dreams and ambitions of the employee to realize the employees that they are very important part of an organization. Some still consider HR to be support function, but there are some people who actually believe that Humans are not resource they are assets for the organization. HR professionals have been making change in the styles of the human resource management. In the future HR function will be involve the ability of the managers and look around the corners.
The HR organization must understand the strategy and economic realities of the business it supports. It must be regarded as an essential contributor to the business mission. HR people must speak the language of business and their activities must reflect the priorities of the business. Nothing contributes more to the credibility of the Human Resource Department than for it to be focused on matters of genuine concern to the business. If it is not, it gives the opportunity for its opinion to be disregarded and its contribution to be minimized or even eliminated.
The primary HR role is to create an environment in which employees are committed to the success of the enterprise that employs them. Its about developing forms of attachment with people that make them a want to work there and contribute willingly. It involves using teamwork and establishing peer review systems that provide employees with a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them. It involves engaging employees in the change process and giving them a voice in shaping their future since experience shows that people support that they can create. Creating effective relationships includes providing employees with opportunities to acquire new skills, which increase their capacity to contribute.
The HR function must understand the process of change. It must work closely with line managers who are leading change and assist those who must implement change but seem reluctant to do so. HR can help managers appreciate that people do not resist change much as they resist both being changed and the top-down approach often being used to introduce change. HR should help managers understand that involving employees in the change process energizes them, draws on their know-how, and helps produce a sound result. HR people should be viewed as thoughtful and enthusiastic advocates of the changes and new ideas that contribute to the success of the business. HR must provide a thoughtful, objective and realistic assessment of the human resource aspects of pending decisions to help ensure that the best conclusion is reached. Since sound business decisions balance a series of factors that typically conflict with one another, the HR role is not to win arguments but to ensure that human resource issues are given the attention they deserve. The impact of decisions on employees almost certainly is overlooked unless HR puts a spotlight on it. A failure to provide this perspective does a serious disservice to decision makers as well as to the people who will be affected by the decision.