Summary Principles of Human Resource Management

HRM 2020-2021 B. Schreurs


Les 1 – Human Resources
1. Introduction
 Human resources
- Types of resources
 Tangible
 Financial: cash, securities, borrowing capacity
 Physical: plant, equipment, land, mineral reserves
 Intangible
 Technology: patents, copyrights, trade secrets
 Reputation: brands, relationships)
 Corporate culture
 Human
 Knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (personality)
 Motivation
- Goal: creating competitive advantage for organization
 Important that HR strategy is aligned with business strategy
 Creating capable and motivated workforce
 Creating a work environment that offers opportunities


2. The HR-performance link
 Investments in HR  better firm performance
- Resource-based view
 Competitors can differ in performance due to
 Firm size
 Reputation, corporate culture
 Service quality, client satisfaction
 Resources bundle together to provide competitive advantage
 Superior business position for company
 Identify things company does well to its competitors
 Fundamental to firm’s strategy (alignment)
 If resources want to be sustainable they
 Must provide value (requires heterogeneity)
 Must be rare
 Must be inimitable
 Must be non-substitutable
- Contingency theory
 Context determines HR practices
 Vertical fit: HR practices should be aligned with business strategy
 Focus on promoting innovative behavior amongst employees
 Horizontal fit: HR practices should be aligned with each other
 Align HR practices (recruitment, selection, training and
development, performance appraisal and management,
compensation and benefits) to obtain innovative workforce

,HRM 2020-2021 B. Schreurs


- AMO framework
= Ability Motivation Opportunity
 HR enhances employee’s
 Skill levels
 Motivation
 Opportunities to participate
 Leads to discretionary effort and eventually better firm performance


! RECAP !

People = source of sustainable competitive advantage
Superior firm performance  HR practices vertically and horizontally aligned
HR  superior firm performance by influencing peoples abilities, motivation and
opportunities to participate

,HRM 2020-2021 B. Schreurs


Les 2 – HR roles, history and future
1. Roles
 Why isn’t HR taken serious?
- HR doesn’t understand all aspects of business
 Widening gap between capabilities of HR employees and business acumen
(scherpzinnigheid) needed to be successful strategic partners
 Most HR = industrial-organizational psychologists
- HR doesn’t contribute to the bottom line (bedrijfsresultaat)
 HR uses easy-to-measure metrics instead of a metric to understand their
financial impact on the organization
- HR isn’t working for you
 Treats everyone the same
 Unfair? Individuals differ: unique contributions = talent management
 ‘Bad cop’  tool of top management
 Rule enforcer to ensure fairness across the board
- Corner office doesn’t get HR and vice versa
 HR only to boost morale
 Corporations don’t empower HR to be strategic, even when they want to do that
 Reinforces stereotype: HR not interested in increasing organizational
performance


2. HR roles according to Dave Ulrich
 Roles HR-manager




₋ Axis
 Horizontal
 Focus on processes
 Focus on people
 Vertical
 Focus on longterm
 Focus on daily business




- 4 fields of HR
1) Administrative expert
 Managing firm’s HR infrastructure (job analysis, recruitment and
selection, training and development, career management, performance
appraisal and management, compensation systems, labor legislation, HR
planning)
 Process optimalization and efficiency

, HRM 2020-2021 B. Schreurs


2) Employee champion
 Managing employee’s contribution (working relationships, unions,
employee involvement and participation, communication and trust,
monitoring work stress and job satisfaction, work engagement,
psychological contract)
 Motivated and competent personnel
3) Change agent
 Managing transformation and change (managing and supporting the
change process, preparing for change, organizational culture,
conflict/problem resolution, action plans, monitoring progress and
making change last)
 Effecting transformation and change
4) Strategic partner
 Aligning HR and business strategy (creating added value, translate
corporate strategy into HR-activities, aligning HR-processes, HR
information systems)
 Active role in setting strategic direction
- HR roles in context
 All HR professionals are operating within a certain organizational and national
context
 Context can alter the importance of relevance of various HR roles


3. History of HRM
 Early beginnings
- Earliest evolved management function
- Actual HRM: since functioning units bv tribes
 Division of labor: some go hunting, some go farming…
= different persons occupy different roles in productive society

 Pre-industrial society
- Before 1750
- Rural areas: agrarian society
 Farmer’s life for bulk of population
 Flexible hours
 Depending on what work was needed
- Urban areas: self-employment or small businesses, artisanal and skill-based work
 Association of craftsmen or merchants  mutual aid AND protection of
professional interests
 Guild regulations  who can work at a trade, which skills need to be taught and
when to work

 Industrial revolution
- 18th century Europe
- Agricultural  industrial/manufacturing society
 Machines replaced human labor
 Rise to factory system
 Change of traditional employment relationships