Solution Manual for Managing Human Resources 9th Canadian Edition

Solution Manual for Managing Human Resources 9th Canadian Edition Chapter 1: The World of Human Resources Management If nothing else, my students should learn that…  Human resources management (HRM) involves a number of policies and practices (e.g., recruitment, selection, training, health and safety, etc.) that are designed to provide employees with the ability, motivation, and opportunity to perform their jobs well.  Effective HRM requires a consideration of the organization’s strategy, as well as the social and political landscape. This requires the HRM department to be a strategic partner and a champion of change. Further, human resources (HR) must partner with line management, who are often the conduits of HR policies. Learning outcomes 1. Explain how human resources managers and other managers can have rewarding careers by helping their firms gain a sustainable competitive advantage through the strategic utilization of people. 2. Explain how good human resources practices can help a firm’s globalization, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability efforts. 3. Describe how technology can improve how people perform their work and how they are managed. 4. Explain the dual goals HR managers have in terms of increasing productivity and controlling costs. 5. Discuss how firms can leverage employee differences to their strategic advantage and how educational and cultural changes in the workforce are affecting how human resources managers engage employees. 6. Provide examples of the roles and competencies of today’s human resources professionals. Why is this chapter important? The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint students with the importance of HRM and how it contributes to the achievement of an organization’s overall objectives. In this chapter, we discuss the following topics: how people can be a source of competitive advantage, the competitive challenges facing firms, and the concerns of employees themselves. Students are made aware of some of the important efforts that both large and small companies are making to develop and utilize the talents of their people, as well as the changes taking place in the work environment. We end the chapter with a discussion of the competencies that HR managers and line managers need to possess in order to work together to make the most of employees’ talents. Why should students care? The answer to this question is much the same, regardless of whether students plan on a career in HRM. Organizations compete through people. Studying HRM gives students an understanding of the systems and processes needed to develop and utilize the talents and energies of employees for the firm to gain a competitive advantage. Staffing the organization, designing jobs and teams, developing skilful employees, identifying approaches for improving their performance, and rewarding employee successes—all typically labelled HRM issues—are as relevant to line managers as they are to managers in the HR department. The HR professional supports managers as they manage their employees to achieve organizational goals. Because employee skills, knowledge, and abilities are among the most distinctive and renewable resources on which a company can draw, their strategic management is more important than ever. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started Begin the class with a brief overview of the strategic role of the HRM function. For instance, emphasize these points:  Studying HRM gives students an understanding of the systems and processes needed to develop and utilize the talents and energies of employees in order for the firm to gain a competitive advantage.  Staffing the organization, designing jobs and teams, developing skilful employees, identifying approaches for improving their performance, and rewarding employee successes—all typically labelled HRM issues—are as relevant to line managers as they are to managers in the HR department. Explain that this is because organizations “compete through people,” and the success of doing so depends on an organization’s ability to manage talent, or human capital, defined as the economic value of employees’ knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Some ideas for getting students energized at the beginning of class include the following:  Connectivity Activity: Ask students to think about a previous or current job. In small groups, discuss their interaction with the HRM department. Note the activities mentioned by students on the board or flip chart. Ask students whether all of the activities are the sole remit of HRM. There are likely to be shared responsibilities with management. Highlight some of the reasons why HRM is important for those who wish to be HRM managers, but also for those who wish to manage others, or even start their own business.  Connectivity Activity: Go to websites for HR professional associations, such as the HRPA, CIPD, or SHRM. Collect information on each of the topics to be discussed over the course of the semester (e.g., week-to-week breakdown of HRM activities, such as recruiting and training). Have students get into small groups, and give one topic per group. Ask students to develop a presentation on three of the most important or interesting elements in the reading, and then present their findings to one another. This can also be done at the end of the lecture as a preview for the rest of the course.  Call-Out Question: Think of a firm you are familiar with that is facing dramatic changes in order to survive. How do you think the firm’s personnel can help it adapt? What role will the company’s HR staff play in helping with that goal?  Call-Out Question: Ask students whether they can think of a situation in which, if a particular person left an organization, that organization’s expertise would drop rapidly. There are many instances in which a single individual’s expertise has an enormous influence on an organization. Some high profile names will jump out. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Bill Gates at Microsoft are highly recognizable executives. If students have a difficult time coming up with easily recognizable people, ask them about small companies in their hometowns. What would happen at a mom-and-pop store if Mom or Pop decided to leave? In small businesses especially, the human capital may be almost completely tied up in one or two key individuals. The talent, service, and/or reputation of those key individuals “are” the business. Highlight that HRM programs are often the conduit through which knowledge is developed and transferred among employees, and that HRM can provide the systems and procedures so that if a star CEO leaves, he or she does not take the success of the company with him or her. To go outside the bounds of the textbook, it is possible to introduce “strong” cultures in this space (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; see the full citation in the Recommended Reading section).