Human Resource Management Functions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Resource Management Functions - Assignment Example In the next section, this paper will further investigate why human resource management is currently considered so important in attaining superior business performance. After the discussion, it will briefly outline the main functions of human resource management and how these are applied in real world. The role of the workforce in the success or even mere survival of a business organization cannot be overstated. The old clich which states that "people is our most valuable asset" will not probably met disagreement with any manager in this competitive business environment. This is further emphasized by Bullinger, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft1 by stating that employees are a company's best assets together with their knowledge, abilities, creativity and commitment. He further asserted that the competitiveness of a business organization is highly correlated with the company's highly trained, creative, and motivated employees. John Purcell further highlighted the importance of employees in his research which emphasized the huge role played by the company's workforce as "strategic partners." This research strongly supports the highly economist viewpoint of Grant (2002: 219) of "aligning employees with organizational goals." Schuler and Jackson (1987) gave a more precise description on how management should "align" their workforce to support the company crafted strategy. Their conclusion was: If management chooses a competitive strategy of differentiation through product innovation, this would call for high levels of creative, risk-orientated and cooperative behaviour. The company's HR practices would therefore need to emphasise "selecting highly skilled individuals, giving employees more discretion, using minimal controls, making greater investment in human resources, providing more resources for experimentation, allowing and even rewarding failure and appraising performance for its long run implications" - on the other hand if management wants to pursue cost leadership (the model) suggests designing jobs which are fairly repetitive, training workers as little as is practical, cutting staff numbers to the minimum and rewarding high output and predictable behaviour. (Boxall and Purcell 2003:53-4) The importance of human resource management therefore can be traced back on the essential role that the workforce plays in the company. As this paper showed above, current researchers highlight employees as on of the competitive advantages in realizing the objectives of an organization. However, a deeper analysis will also reveal the great function of management to turn employees into "most valuable assets" and "strategic partners" thus, the key purpose of human resource management. So, what activities should be performed by the human resource department to produce highly productive employees Functions of Human Resource Management The Economist (2002) recognizes the changing role of HR leaders due to the rapid change in the business climate and environment faced by industry players. This also implies the changing function of the HRM in shaping their employees-from the "psychological contract, rewarding employee loyalty with personal development, financial progression, and job security" to the "boundary less