Fundamentals of Human

Resource Management
Tenth Edition

DeCenzo and Robbins

Chapter 1
Strategic Implications of a Dynamic HRM Environment

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Today’s Agenda

What is Human Resource Management

Why we are concerned about HRM

Overview of Human Resource Management

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Human Resource Management
 Old Perception  New Perception

 …….Natural resources of  …….The level of richness

a country will determine of a country is dependent
which country is rich and upon the knowledge and
which country is poor. skills of Human Resources
of a country

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Human Resource Management

Resource

Management

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Human Resource Management

• Human Management

• Managing People

• Managerial Function that tries to match

an organization’s needs to the skills and
abilities of its employees
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Human Resource Management
HRM
It’s about…

having the right people,

with the right abilities,

in the right place,

at the right time.

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Human Resource Management
• Human resource management (HRM)

– Human resource management is the process of acquiring,

training, apprising, and compensating employees, and of
attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and
fairness concerns.

– HRM is responsible for bringing people in organization, helping them perform

their work, compensating them for their work and solving problems that arise.
– There is generally one human resource employee per 100 company employees in
the organization

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 Personnel Aspects Of A
Manager’s Job/ HRM Functions
 Conducting job analyses (determining the nature of each employee’s
job)
 Planning labor needs and recruiting job candidates
 Selecting job candidates
 Orienting and training new employees
 Managing wages and salaries (compensating employees)
 Providing incentives and benefits
 Appraising performance
 Communicating (interviewing, counseling, disciplining)
 Training and developing managers
 Building employee commitment

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 Why HRM is Important to All Managers?

1. HRM Helps To avoid Common Personnel Mistakes

Hire the wrong person for the job
Experience high turnover
Have your people not doing their best
Waste time with useless interviews
Have your company in court because of discriminatory actions
Have your company cited by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act )for
unsafe practices
Have some employees think their salaries are unfair and inequitable relative to
others in the organization
Allow a lack of training to undermine your department’s effectiveness
Commit any unfair labor practices
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 Why HRM is Important to All Managers?
(Cont.)

2. HRM Helps to get results through others

HRM helps to produce the employee work

behaviors, the company needs, to achieve its
strategic goals.

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 Why HRM is Important to All Managers?

3.HRM Helps you to gain competitive advantage

– Quality, speed, innovation, efficiency…who will
brings all these things…? Human
– So if we have the right people, smart people,
deliverable people, efficient people, they will provide
us competitive advantage.
•Because all organizations can have the same technology, they can possess same
type of financial resources, same sort of raw material can be used to produce the
goods and services but the organizational source that can really makes the difference
is the work force of the organization.
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 Why HRM is Important to All Managers?

• 4. HR for Entrepreneurs
– If you are/will be managing your own small
firm with no human resource manager, you’ll
have to understand the nuts and bolts of Human
resource management.

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 HRM Challenges…

• To attract good people

• To develop them

• To motivate

• To keep/retain talented people

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Line and Staff Aspects of HRM
 Authority
 The right to make decisions, direct others’ work, and
give orders.
 Line Authority
 Line authority gives managers the authority to issue
orders to other managers and employees. It creates a
superior-subordinate relationship.
 Staff Authority
 Staff authority gives manager the authority to advise
other managers or employees. It creates an advisory
relationship.
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 Line and Staff Aspects of HRM
• Line manager
– A manager who is authorized to direct the work of
subordinates and is responsible for accomplishing
the organization’s tasks.
– For example, Manager production and sales are line
managers
• Staff manager
– A manager who assists and advises line managers.
– (HR Manager is staff manager). They are
responsible for assisting and advising line managers
in areas like recruiting, hiring and compensation etc.
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 Line Managers’ HRM
Responsibilities
1. Placing the right person on the right job
2. Starting new employees in the organization (orientation)
3. Training employees for jobs new to them
4. Improving the job performance of each person
5. Gaining creative cooperation and developing smooth working
relationships
6. Interpreting the firm’s policies and procedures
7. Controlling labor costs
8. Developing the abilities of each person
9. Creating and maintaining department morale
10. Protecting employees’ health and physical condition

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 Functions of the HR Manager
• A line function
– The HR manager directs the activities of the people in his or
her own department and in related service areas (like the
plant cafeteria).
• A coordinative function
– HR managers also coordinate personnel activities, a duty
often referred to as functional control.
– Here HR managers ensures that line managers are
implementing the firm’s HR polices and practices.
• Staff (assist and advise) functions
– Assisting and advising line managers is the heart of the HR
manager’s job.
– Assisting in areas like, hiring, training, evaluation and
compensation
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etc.
 HR and Authority
• Line authority (of HR Manager)
– The authority exerted by an HR manager by
directing the activities of the people in his or
her own department and in service areas.
• Implied authority (of HR Manager)
– The authority exerted by an HR manager by
virtue of others’ knowledge that he or she has
access to top management.

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 Employee Advocacy
• HR must take responsibility for:
– Clearly defining how management should be
treating employees.
– Making sure employees have the mechanisms
required to contest unfair practices.
– Represent the interests of employees within the
framework of its primary obligation to senior
management.

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 Cooperative Line and Staff HR
Management
1. The line manager’s responsibility is to specify the
qualifications employees need to fill specific positions.
2. HR staff then develops sources of qualified applicants and
conduct initial screening interviews
3. HR administers the appropriate tests and refers the best
applicants to the supervisor (line manager), who
interviews and selects the ones he or she wants.

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 Today’s Business World
• The World of Work - continues to change, but
at an even more rapid pace.
• HR must understand the implications of:
– globalization
– technology changes
– workforce diversity
– changing skill requirements
– continuous improvement initiatives
– the contingent work force
– decentralized work sites
– and employee involvement

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Understanding Cultural
Environments
• Today’s business world is truly a global
village. This term refers to the fact that
businesses currently operate around the
world.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Understanding Cultural
Environments
• HRM must ensure that
– employees can operate in the appropriate language
– communications are understood by a multilingual work force
• Ensure that workers can operate in cultures that differ
on variables such as
– status differentiation
– societal uncertainty
– assertiveness
– individualism
• HRM also must help multicultural groups work
together.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Understanding Cultural
Environments
• GLOBE Dimensions:
– Assertiveness
– Future Orientation
– Gender Differentiation
– Uncertainty Avoidance
– Power Distance
– Individualism/collectivism
– In-group collectivism
– Performance orientation
– Humane orientation
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins
 Understanding Cultural
Environments
• Cultural Implications for HRM
– Not all HRM theories and practices are
universally applicable.
– HRM must understand varying cultural
values.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 The Changing World of
Technology
• Has altered the way people work.
• Has changed the way information is
created, stored, used, and shared.
• The move from agriculture to
industrialization created a new group of
workers – the blue-collar industrial
worker.
• Since WW-II, the trend has been a
reduction in manufacturing work and an
increase in service jobs.
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins
 The Changing World of
Technology
• Knowledge Worker - individuals whose jobs
are designed around the acquisition and
application of information.
• Why the emphasis on technology:
– makes organizations more productive
– helps them create and maintain a
competitive advantage
– provides better, more useful information

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 The Changing World of
Technology
• How Technology Affects HRM Practices
– Recruiting
– Employee Selection
– Training and Development
– Ethics and Employee Rights
– Motivating Knowledge Workers
– Paying Employees Market Value
– Communication
– Decentralized Work Sites
– Skill Levels
– Legal Concerns

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Workforce Diversity
• The challenge is to make organizations
more accommodating to diverse groups
of people.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Workforce Diversity
• The Workforce Today
– minorities and women have become the
fastest growing segments
– the numbers of immigrant workers and
older workers are increasing

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Workforce Diversity
• How Diversity Affects HRM
– Need to attract and maintain a diversified
work force that is reflective of the diversity
in the general population.
– Need to foster increased sensitivity to
group differences.
– Must deal with the different
• Values
• Needs
• Interests
• Expectations of employees

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Workforce Diversity
• What Is a Work/Life Balance?
– A balance between personal life and work
– Causes of the blur between work and life
• The creation of global organizations means the
world never sleeps.
• Communication technologies allow employees
to work at home.
• Organizations are asking employees to put in
longer hours.
• Fewer families have a single breadwinner.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Labor Supply
• Do We Have a Shortage of Skilled
Labor?
– The combination of the small Gen-X
population, the already high participation
rate of women in the workforce, and early
retirements will lead to a significantly
smaller future labor pool from which
employers can hire.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Labor Supply
• Why Do Organizations Lay Off During
Shortages?
– Downsizing is part of a larger goal of
balancing staff to meet changing needs.
– Organizations want more flexibility to better
respond to change.
– This is often referred to as rightsizing,
linking employee needs to organizational
strategy.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Labor Supply
• How Do Organizations Balance Labor
Supply?
– Organizations are increasingly using
contingent workers to respond to
fluctuating needs for employees.
– Contingent workers include
• Part-time workers
• Temporary workers
• Contract workers

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Labor Supply

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Labor Supply
• Issues Contingent Workers Create for
HRM
– How to attract quality temporaries
– How to motivate employees who are
receiving less pay and benefits
– How to have them available when needed
– How to quickly adapt them to the
organization
– How to deal with potential conflicts
between core and contingent workers

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Continuous Improvement
Programs
• Continuous improvement - making
constant efforts to provide better
products and service to customers
– External
– Internal
• Quality management concepts have
existed for over 50 years and include
the pioneering work of W. Edwards
Deming.
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins
 Continuous Improvement
Programs
• Key components of continuous
improvement are:
– Focus on the customer
– Concern for continuous improvement
– Improvement in the quality of everything
– Accurate measurement
– Empowerment of employees

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Continuous Improvement
Programs
• Work Process Engineering involves radical,
quantum changes to entire work processes.
• How HRM Assists in Work Process
Engineering
– Helps employees deal with the emotional aspects
of conflict and change
– Provides skills training
– Adapts HR systems, such as compensation,
benefits, and performance standards.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Employee Involvement
• Delegation – having the authority to make
decisions in one’s job
• Work teams – workers of various
specializations who work together in an
organization
• HRM must provide training to help empower
employees in their new roles.
• Involvement programs can achieve:
– greater productivity
– increased employee loyalty and commitment

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 A Look at Ethics
• Three views of ethics:
– Utilitarian View – decisions are made on the basis
of their outcomes or consequences
– Rights View – decisions are made with concern for
respecting and protecting individual liberties and
privileges
– Theory of Justice View – decisions are made by
enforcing rules fairly and impartially
• Code of ethics - a formal document that
states an organization’s primary values and
the ethical rules it expects organizational
members to follow.

Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 8e, DeCenzo and Robbins

 Key terms
• Equal Employment Opportunity, it means everyone, regardless
of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or age, has an equal
chance for a job based on his/her qualifications.

• Affirmative action, known as positive discrimination in the

United Kingdom refers to policies that take factors including
"race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national
origin“ into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented
group "in areas of employment, education, and business".[2]

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 Key terms
• Human resource policies
– These are formal rules and guidelines that businesses
put in place to hire, train, assess, and reward the
members of their work force. These policies, when
organized and disseminated in an easily used form—
such as an employee manual or large postings—can
help in eliminating any misunderstandings between
employees and employers about their rights and
obligations in the business environment.
– These are ground rules for employee behaviors, ethics
and professionalism so that there is consistency in the
workplace.

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 Key terms
– E.g behavior polices elicit what type of behavior are
acceptable and what are not acceptable
– Similarly ethical policies guide what is right and
appropriate and what is not
– Likewise dress code are polices which guide employees
about what they are expected to wear at the workplace
and what not.

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 Key terms
• HR Practices
– the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to
theories about such application or use
– carry out or perform (a particular activity, method, or custom) habitually
or regularly.

• HR Bundles
– Effective combination of HRM Practices is referred to as HRM
Bundles(MacDuffie,1995).
– Organizational performance is dependent on the adoption of an effective
combination of HRM practices, often referred to as HRM bundles

– HR Metrics
– A set of quantitative performance measures (metrics) HR managers use to
assess their performance
– Cost per hire= total hiring cost/ No. of Hires
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 Key terms
– HR Expense factor= HR Expense/ operating
expenses
– Time to fill= Total days elapsed to fill
requisitions/No. Hired
– Turn Over Rate= No. of separations during
month/Average No. of employees during
month*100
– Training investment Factor= Total Training
cost/Headcount

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Thank You !

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