1. ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE FUNCTION IN AN ORGANIZATION

THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT
The organization and staffing of the HR function clearly depends on the size of the business, the
extent to which operations are decentralized, the type of work carried out, the kind of people
employed and the role assigned to the HR function. There are, therefore, no absolute rules for
organizing the HR function, but current practice suggests that the following guidelines should be
taken into account: the head of the function should report directly to the chief executive and
should be on the board, or at least be a member of the senior management or leadership team, in
order to contribute to the formulation of corporate strategies and play a full part in the
formulation and integration of HR strategies and policies. In a decentralized organization,
subsidiary companies, divisions, or operational units should be responsible for their own HR
management affairs within the framework of broad strategic and policy guidelines from the
Centre. The central HR function in a decentralized organization should be slimmed down to the
minimum required to develop group human resource strategies and policies. The HR function
has to be capable of delivering the level of advice and services required by the organization.
Delivery may be achieved by the direct provision of services but may be outsourced. The HR
department is organized in accordance with the level of support and services it is required to give
and the range of activities that need to be catered for, which could include resourcing,
management development, training, reward management, employee relations, knowledge
management and HR services in such areas as health and safety, welfare, HR information
systems and employment matters generally. In a large department, each of these areas may be
provided for separately, but they can be combined in various ways. The organization and staffing
of the HR department needs to take account of its role in formulating HR strategies and policies
and intervening and innovating as required. But the department also has to provide efficient and
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cost-effective services. The HR department should design to fit the needs of the business which
results to considerable variations in in HR departments in various organizations. The following
figure illustrates the various sections that may be in a simple HR department as well as some
responsibilities of those sections.
2.2 FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
One of the first HRM concepts called the matching model of HRM made by the Michigan
School argues that HR systems and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is
congruent with organizational strategy (hence the name ‘matching model’). They further
explained that there is a human resource cycle, which consists of four generic processes or
functions that are performed in all organizations. These are:
1. Selection – matching available human resources to jobs;
2. Appraisal – performance management;
3. Rewards – ‘the reward system is one of the most under-utilized and mishandled managerial
tools for driving organizational performance’; it must reward short as well as long-term
achievements, bearing in mind that ‘business must perform in the present to succeed in the
future’;
4. Development – developing high quality employees.
Figure 1.1: The human resource cycle
HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGERThe general HR functions include:-
1. Human resource planning.
2. Training and development.
3. Reward management.
4. Recruitment and selection.
5. Termination.
6. Succession planning;
7. Maintaining personnel records and statistics concerning employees.
8. Preparation of job description and job specifications.
2.3 ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTITIONER IN AN ORGANIZATION.
This section is concerned with what HR professionals do and how they do it, recognizes that
‘HRM does not belong to HR specialists’. HRM belongs to line managers and the people they
manage. The section analyses the basic roles and activities of HR professionals. However, in
playing their role, HR practitioner are affected by issues such as; achieving comprise in gaining
support and commitment, role ambiguity, role conflict, ethics, and professionalism.
The roles of HR practitioners vary widely according to the extent to which they are generalist
(e.g., HR director or HR manager), or specialist (e.g., head of learning and development, head of
talent management, or head of reward), the level at which they work (strategic, executive or
administrative), the needs of the organization, the context within which they work and their own
capabilities.
The role of human resource practitioner in an organization:
The roles can be proactive, reactive or a mixture of both. At a strategic level, HR people take on
a proactive role since they are to be involved in strategic decision-making processes and are most
likely to be found in workplaces within which sophisticated methods and techniques have been
adopted. As such, they act as business partners, develop integrated HR strategies, intervene,
innovate, and operate as internal consultants and volunteer guidance on matters concerning
upholding core values, ethical principles and the achievement of consistency. They focus on
business issues and working with line managers to deliver performance targets. In some
15situations they play a mainly reactive role. They spend much of their time doing what they are
told or asked to do. They provide the administrative systems required by management. This is
what is referred to as the non-interventionary role, in which HR people merely provide a service
to meet the demands of management and front-line managers. The various roles are described in
more detail below.
a) Service provision
The basic role of HR specialists is that of providing services to internal customers. These include
management, line managers, team leaders and employees. The services may be general, covering
all aspects of HRM: human resource planning, recruitment and selection, employee
development, employee reward, employee relations, health and safety management and welfare.
Alternatively, services may only be provided in one or two of these areas by specialists. The
focus may be on the requirements of management (e.g., resourcing), or it may extend to all
employees (e.g., health and safety). The aims are to provide effective services that meet the
needs of the business, its management and its employees and to administer them efficiently.
b) Guidance and advice
HR practitioners provide guidance and advice to management. At the highest level, this will
include recommendations on HR strategies that have been developed by processes of analysis
and diagnosis to address strategic issues arising from business needs and human, organizational
or environmental factors. They also provide advice on issues concerning culture change and
approaches to the improvement of process capability – the ability of the organization to get
things done through people. Guidance is given to managers to ensure that consistent decisions
are made on such matters as performance ratings, pay increases and disciplinary actions.
Guidance may be provided on HR policies and procedures and the implications of employment
legislation to ensure that legal requirements are met.
c) The business partner role
HR practitioners as business partners share responsibility with their line management colleagues
for the success of the enterprise and get involved with them in running the business. They must
have the capacity to identify business opportunities, to see the broad picture and to
16understand how their HR role can help to achieve the company’s business objectives. HR
professionals integrate their activities closely with management and ensure that they serve a
long-term strategic purpose. This is one of the key roles assigned to HR by Ulrich (1998), who
stated that HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution and
that HR executives should impel and guide serious discussion of how the company should be
organized to carry out its strategy.
d) The strategist role
As strategists, HR professionals address major long-term organizational issues concerning the
management and development of people and the employment relationship. They are guided by
the business plans of the organization but they also contribute to the formulation of those
business plans. This is achieved by ensuring that top managers focus on the human resource
implications of the plans. HR strategists persuade top managers that they must develop business
strategies that make the best use of the core competences of the organization’s human resources.
They emphasize, that people are a strategic resource for the achievement of competitive
advantage.
e) The innovation and change agent role
In their proactive role, HR practitioners are well placed to observe and analyze what is
happening in and to their organizations as it affects the employment of people, and intervene
accordingly. Following this analysis, they produce diagnoses that identify opportunities and
threats and the causes of problems. They propose innovations in the light of these diagnoses that
may be concerned with organizational processes such as interaction between departments and
people, teamwork, structural change and the impact of new technology and methods of working,
or HR processes such as resourcing, employee development or reward. As innovators they have
to be experts in change management.
HR change is categorized in four dimensions: Transformational change – a major change that
has a dramatic effect on HR policy and practice across the whole organization, Incremental
change – gradual adjustments of HR policy and practices that affect single activities or multiple
functions, HR vision – a set of values and beliefs that affirm the legitimacy of the HR function as
17strategic business partner and HR expertise – the knowledge and skills that define the unique
contribution the HR professional can make to effective people management. Across these
dimensions, the change agent roles that can be carried out by HR professionals are those of
change champions, change adapters, change consultants and change synergists.
f) The internal consultancy role
As internal consultants, HR practitioners function like external management consultants,
working alongside their colleagues – their clients – in analyzing problems, diagnosing issues and
proposing solutions. They will be involved in the development of HR processes or systems and
in process consulting such as organization, team building and objective setting.
g) The monitoring role
As monitors of the application of HR policies and procedures and the extent to which the
organization’s values relating to people management are upheld, HR practitioners have a
delicate, indeed a difficult, role to play. They are not there to ‘police’ what line managers do but
it is still necessary to ensure that the policies and procedures are implemented with a reasonable
degree of consistency. This role can mean that HR specialists can act as ‘regulators’ who are
involved in formulating and monitoring employment rules. The monitoring role is particularly
important with regard to employment legislation. HR practitioners have to ensure that policies
and procedures comply with the legislation and that they are implemented correctly by line
managers.
h) The guardian of values role
HR practitioners may act as the guardians of the organization’s values concerning people. They
point out when behaviour conflicts with those values or where proposed actions would be
inconsistent with them. In a sense, their roles require them to act as the ‘conscience’ of
management – a necessary role but not an easy one to play.
18The competencies required by HR professionals:
A successful HR professional should have the following competencies / skills;
ii) Personal drive and effectiveness.
The existence of a positive ‘can do’ mentality, anxious to find ways round obstacles and willing
to exploit all the available resources to accomplish objectives.
iii) People management and leadership.
The motivation of others (whether subordinates, seniors or project team members) towards the
achievement of shared goals, not through the application of formal authority but rather by
personal role modeling, the establishment of professional credibility, and the creation of
reciprocal trust.
iv) Professional competence.
Possession of the professional skills and technical capabilities associated with successful
achievement in personnel and development.
v) Adding value through people.
A desire not only to concentrate on tasks, but rather to select meaningful outputs which will
produce added-value outcomes for the organization, or eliminate/reduce the existence of
performance inhibitors, whilst simultaneously complying with all legal and ethical
considerations.
vi) Continuing learning.
Commitment to continuous improvement and change by the application of self-managed learning
techniques, supplemented where appropriate by deliberate planned exposure to external learning
sources (mentoring, coaching, etc).
vii) ‘Customer’ focused.
Concern for the perceptions of personnel’s customers, including (principally) the central
directorate of the organization, a willingness to solicit and act upon ‘customer’ feedback as one
of the foundations for performance improvement.
19viii) Strategic capability.
The capacity to create an achievable vision for the future, to foresee longer-term developments,
to envisage options (and their probable consequences), to select sound courses of action, to rise
above the day-to-day detail, to challenge the status quo.
ix) Influencing and interpersonal skills.
The ability to transmit information to others, especially in written (report) form, both
persuasively and cogently; display of listening, comprehension and understanding skills, plus
sensitivity to the emotional, attitudinal and political aspects of corporate life.
2.4 REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Briefly explain the structure of Human Resource Department in an organization.
2. Discuss the role of HR practitioners in an organization.
3. Outline five general functions of HRM.
4. Explain five competencies of a HR practitioner.