Many companies refer to HRM as involving “people practices.

” There
are several important HRM practices that should support the
organization’s business strategy: analyzing work and designing jobs,
determining how many employees with specific knowledge and skills
are needed (human resource planning), attracting potential employees
(recruiting), choosing employees (selection), teaching employees how
to perform their jobs and preparing them for the future (training and
development), evaluating their performance (performance
management), rewarding employees (compensation), and creating a
positive work environment (employee relations). An organization
performs best when all of these practices are managed well.

Many students talk of studying HRM because they would ‘like to work
with people’, and they seem to think of human resource management
as a cosy job that involves being nice to people at all times. While this
view is not entirely accurate, it is certainly a career which provides a
wealth of variety and a great deal of job satisfaction.

HRM is also a career which is constantly changing as the role evolves in

response to changing social, political, economic and demographic
issues, a career in HR offers endless possibilities with a huge variety of
roles. This is one of the main reasons people give for enjoying their HR
careers as they say they provide variety, challenge and interest, in
organisations where HR is at the heart of the business and can make a
difference.

At companies with effective HRM, employees and customers tend to be

more satisfied, and the companies tend to be more innovative, have
greater productivity, and develop a more favorable reputation in the
community.

Why Is Human Resource Management Important to All Managers?

To understand what human resource management is, it’s useful to start
with what managers do. A manager is someone who is responsible for
accomplishing the organization’s goals, and who does so by managing
the efforts of the organization’s people.

Methods for collecting Job Analysis information There are many ways (interviews, or
questionnaires, for instance) to collect job information. The basic rule is to use those that best
fit your purpose. Thus an interview might be best for creating a list of job duties. The more
quantitative “position analysis questionnaire” method may be best for quantifying each job’s
worth for pay purposes. Before actually analyzing the job, keep several things in mind.

 Make the job analysis a joint effort by a human resources manager, the worker, and the
worker’s supervisor. The human resource manager might observe the worker doing the job,
and have both the supervisor and worker fill out job questionnaires. Then he or she lists the
job’s duties and required human traits. The supervisor and worker then verify the HR
manager’s list of job duties.
 Make sure the questions and the process are both clear to the employees. (For example,
some might not know what you mean when you ask about the job’s “mental demands.”)
 Use several job analysis methods. For example, a questionnaire might miss a task the
worker performs just occasionally. Therefore it’s prudent to follow up the questionnaire
with a short interview.

Uses of Job Analysis Information Almost all the human resources plans or programs need to
get certain types of information through the work analysis; it affects management of human resources
in the following areas:

Recruitment and Selection Information about what duties the job entails and what human
characteristics are required to perform these duties helps managers decide what sort of people to
recruit and hire.

EEO Compliance Job analysis is crucial for validating all major human resources practices. For example,
to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers should know each job’s essential job
functions—which in turn requires a job analysis.

Performance appraisal A performance appraisal compares each employee’s actual performance with his
or her duties and performance standards. Managers use job analysis to learn what these duties and
standards are.

Compensation Compensation (such as salary and bonus) usually depends on the job’s required skill and
education level, safety hazards, degree of responsibility, and so on—all factors you assess through job
analysis.
Training The job description lists the job’s specific duties and requisite skills—thus pinpointing what
training the job requires.

Q. 2 Human Resource Management & the importance of HRM in the context of

Pakistani business culture

Pakistan is categorized in the list of developing countries. Many multinationals organizations are
operational in Pakistan and along with these multinational organizations many large and small
businesses are also operating in Pakistan. Now a day there is a trend of doing business that’s why both
experienced and well educated entrepreneurs are staring their businesses and this will a positive sign in
the success of Pakistan.

In Pakistan, most of the organizations don’t have a proper human resource department to perform all
the related activities of human resource department. Organizations don’t give importance to the human
resource department and do not realize the effectiveness of human resource department. They think
that hiring a person is the only responsibility of human resource department in any organization and it
can be done by any other person of the organization. But on the other hand, many multinational and
national organizations realize the importance of human resource department and they have a proper
human resource department in their organization and they are achieving the results positively.
Organizations are now thinking and many organizations start building a proper human resource
department so that they meet the challenges of the market. So in near future, we will see that almost
every organization must have a proper human resource department and human resource managers are
performing their duties effectively.

Human Resource Development, its importance and the components of HRD

HRD creates a structure/framework for helping the employees of the organization in developing their
organizational and personal abilities, know-how and skills.

It includes such opportunities as employee training, employee career development and key employee
identification.

Human resource is a collective term for a number of functions that guide the organization towards
attaining value and organizational growth through its agency staff, employees, and vendors.

The important functions and features of HRD

i. The first important function of HRD is to develop the relationship between the subordinates and
the supervisor to maintain team spirit and smooth functioning of work within teams, inter
departments and also create collaboration amongst different departments.
 ii. The Human resource development definition also works towards the health of the organization
itself renewing capability that enables and increases the self-potential of the individuals working
in an organization along with the performances of their teams and the entire organization.

iii. Its motive is to examine and identify the needs of the employee and try to meet them in the
best possible way to maximize employee welfare and quality of work life.

iv. HRD believes in a continuous and a systematic learning process along with monitoring the
progress with the help of different assessments and tools.

The three fundamental components are the following:

i. Individual development (personal),

ii. Career development (professional), and
iii. Organizational development.

Individual development refers to the development of new knowledge or skills.

Career development focuses on providing the analysis necessary to identify the individual interests,
values, competencies, activities, and assignments needed to develop skills for future jobs
(development). Career development includes both individual and organizational activities.
Organizational development is directed at developing new and creative organization solutions.

Differentiate between Personnel Management and Human Resource

Management
In an organization, a group of people (employers and employees) work together with a common motive
i.e. to achieve their organizational goal, which is only possible when efforts of all the people in the
organization are efficiently managed. There are two basic approaches that employers adopt to manage
people or employee in their company. They are

Personnel Management

Personnel are those who are employed in the workplace. Personnel management is an administrative
function which exists in an organization to ensure right personnel at right organizational activity. It is a
traditional approach of managing employees which focuses on adherence to policies and rules of
organization. Personnel management is concerned with planning, job analysis, and recruitment and
performance appraisal along with training and compensation management. Personnel management also
focuses on managing labor relationship by handling employee grievances.

Human Resource Management

Human resource management is a modern approach of managing people at workplace which focuses on
acquisition, development, utilization and maintenance of human resource. It combines physical energies
and their strengths with human competencies. In simple words, human resource management can be
referred as the policy which ensures right quality and quantity of human resource in the organization.
Like personnel management, human resource management is also concerned with planning, job
 analysis, recruitment and selection, hiring and socialization, training, performance appraisal, rewarding,
and compensation management.

Human resource strategies

Strategic management is the process of identifying and executing the organization’s strategic plan by
matching the company’s capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) with the demands of its environment
(its competitors, customers, and suppliers, for instance).

A strategic plan is the company’s overall plan for how it will match its internal strengths and weaknesses
with its external opportunities and threats in order to maintain a competitive position. The strategic
planner asks, “Where are we now as a business, and where do we want to be?” He or she then
formulates a strategic plan to help guide the company to the desired destination.

Effective human resource management and employee development are strategically necessary
for the following reasons.
(a) To increase productivity. Developing employee skills might’ make employees more
productive, hence the recent emphasis on public debate on the value of training.
(b) To enhance group learning. Employees work more and more in multi-skilled teams. Each
employee has to be competent at several tasks. Some employees have to be trained to
work together (i.e. in team working skills).
(c) To reduce staff turnover. Reducing staff turnover, apart from cutting recruitment costs,
can also increase the effectiveness of operations. In service businesses, such as hotels, or
retail outlets, reductions in staff turnover can be linked with repeat visits by customers.
As it is cheaper to keep existing customers than to find new ones, this can have a
significant effect on profitability.
(d) To encourage initiative. Organisations can gain significant advantage from encouraging
and exploiting the present and potential abilities of the people within them.

Write names of 10 books on HRM, mentioning names of authors, publishers and

the year of publication
1. Robert Folger and Russell, Organizational justice and human resource management, SAGE
Publications, Inc, 1st edition, 1998

2. Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management, Pearson, 16th edition, 2016

3. Peter J. Dowling and Festing, International Human Resource Management, Cengage Learning, 6e, 2013

4. Foot and Margaret, Introducing human resource management, Pearson, 7e, 2016

5. Raymond and John Hollenbeck, Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, McGraw-Hill, 6e,
2015
6. Tom Redman & Wilkinson, Contemporary human resource management: text and cases, Pearson, 4e,
2013

7. Robert L. Mathis, Human Resource Management, South-Western College, 12e, 2007

8. Derek Torrington & Laura, Human Resource Management, Financial Times Management, 7e, 2008

9. Anne-Wil Harzing & Joris Van, International Human Resource Management, Sage Publications Ltd, 2e,
2003

10. Raymond Noe & Hollenbeck, Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 4e,
2010