Objectives Of HRM And Its Evolution In Contemporary Organizations Essay.

1. Give examples of the main organisational objectives that the HR function is responsible for delivering and briefly explain how these have evolved/are evolving in contemporary organisations. In your answer, provide a brief justification for managing HR in a professional, ethical and just manner.

2. Give a brief summary of two different ways HR objectives can be delivered in organisations.

3. Analyse how the HR function varies between organisations in different sectors and of different sizes.

Examples of Organisational Objectives in Human Resource Management

Objectives of Human Resource Management and how it evolves in Contemporary Organizations

The primary objective of human resource management is to provide an organization with the competent, qualified, disciplined, and hard-working workforce to ensure the primary goals and objectives of the company are upheld. Besides this major objectives, there are other subsidiary objectives that help thus function and keep the organization going; these are categorized into: functional objectives, personal objectives, organizational objectives, and societal objectives,

Personal objectives are put in place to help employees attain their personal goals while working under an institution. Achieving personal objectives of an employee is also achieving the objectives of the company as when an individual does his work well he ends up fulfilling his objectives and the objectives of his manager put in place by the company (Taylor 2013).

Functional objectives are established to help maintain the contribution of all the departments in an organization at appropriate levels to fulfill the goals of the company. Organizational demands can only be met when human resource management employs workers who are competent and sophisticated to their work as otherwise, HRM will only be wasting the resources of the company(Schroeder 2012).

Human resource is put in place to help an organization achieve its goals and objectives although human resource itself as a function has its objectives. HRM has to set up objectives that are in line with the objectives of the company at large as all departments of an organization have the same responsibility of keeping together a company and helping it achieve its goals (Russ 2014).

Human resource management while putting in place its goals and objectives for it has to put in mind the ethics of the society as well as expectations of society towards the company. This, therefore, means that HRM has the task of minimizing negative demands from the society that might be of hindrance towards achieving the goals of the company (Kroon et. al 2012).

Aside from these structural objectives, many other objectives of human resource management are as important as the ones said before. These objectives include:

To maintain high standards of employee morale, training and development opportunities to provide fair and acceptable chances to everyone who might be interested in getting a job in a company. This is important to avoid issues such as nepotism and tribalism, and racism.

To provide facilities and working conditions that are favorable to all employees from the executives to the least important employee in the organization. It is only through good working conditions that employees can work and reach the goals and objectives of the company.

To provide efficient, acceptable, fair, and qualified leadership in the firm as managers of the employees and other departments. This is important if respect is to be granted to executives as achievements can only be found if all members of the organization work in mutual friendship and respect each other (Hamid et.al 2017).

To provide an opportunity for employees to have freedom of speech and expression so that they raise issues affecting them while working to help better the company. Freedom of expressing oneself is important as ideas might come from the subordinate group that might help steer the company in the right direction (Banfield, Kay and Royles, n.d.).

Delivering HR Objectives in Two Different Ways in Organizations

To take part in the minimization of social evils taking place in societies such as unemployment, poverty, unequal distribution of funds, and provide employment opportunities to the disadvantaged in the communities as in most cases they are usually left out. Providing equal opportunities to both men and women will be a way of tackling gender imbalance in the society which in return will help in making society a better place (Bradt 2008).

To satisfy both individual and group needs in an organization by providing standard equitable wages to all employees without discrimination, employee benefits, and social securities, recognition, status, and security to all employees to ensure all employees are motivated and are willing to commit themselves into working hard to fulfill the goals of their companies.

To maintain and encourage coordination amongst all employees of all ranks be it individual or group work to keep the integrity and standards of the organization a check. Coordination between all employees will be effective as this is proof that all the employees are on the same page regarding the goals and objectives of the company(Price 2009).

To ensure appropriate utilization of human resources in an organization for example finances, machines and equipment belonging to the company, company funds, and other related materials. If the human resource management fails at keeping records and ensuring all the resources of the company are used only towards the company goals, then the company will be at a greater risk of getting losses. Wastage of resources by human resource has a direct impact on all the employees as well as the outcome of the entire organization. This is so because all funds are directed by the human resource department.

Human resource management has evolved over the years as what we see currently in companies is not the same thing that happened many centuries ago. There are four contemporary stages of evolution when talking about a human resource that has seen the change in the human resource being experienced currently (Bondarouk and Olivas-Lujan, 2014).

The first era of evolution in contemporary organizations is the era of industrial era human resource. The industrial era was experienced in the 20th century where employees were denied their rights to join unions and participate in meetings especially where decisions to be made would largely affect them. This era brought about the largest number of strikes ever experienced in the labor force as all employees had been prohibited to join labor unions. Labor unions are important to all employees as it is this department that protects the rights of employees at all times and pushes for better working conditions for the workers, therefore, being denied an opportunity to join a labor union forced workers to strike(Thomson 2010).

Post fair labor standard act human resource era happened in the early 19th century and was put in place to bring misery and depression to all employees at that time. The fair labor standard act introduced the mandate of the minimum wage to all workers to avoid being exploited by employers. This was a breakthrough as it was made clear the amount of money the lowest paid workers could get and nothing less as previously was the situation (Bratton and Gold, 2012).

Variations of HR Functions in Different Sectors and Sizes

The third era of human resource evolution in contemporary organizations was the 21st era evolution. A lot of changes had taken place in the economic world, therefore, there was a need for change in human resource management too. Human resource staff began fully participating in matters concerning decision making of companies as before they were denied that opportunity. HRM staff were also given the opportunity to sit at the table with other management and make decisions concerning the company. Human resource management was given more responsibilities as it was determined this single department can change the overall look of an organization (Wright 2013). The 21st-century human resource era provided an opportunity for this function to individually stand on its own and be able to help achieve the roles of the company.

The information age era came as the last human resource evolution era and is still the era that we are currently in. With the coming of new technologies and inventions and improvements on old technology, a way of doing businesses across borders was made possible. New inventions and technologies together globalization have changed businesses and provided a new way of seeing things that were never experienced in the past eras.  As a result of new avenues and challenges awoken in the department of human resource management, therefore, forcing the need for HRM to evolve as well (Pfeffer 2012). 

Ways through which HRM can deliver its Objectives to Organizations

Research has indicated that most of the successful companies in the world usually direct their success to human resource management department as this is the core of the organization so if it becomes successful, then the entire organization will become successful. Being able to manage employees’ means that the department is able to keep a balance between its goals and the goals of the company. Being able to get employees to fulfill the objectives of a company, for instance, making profits, survival, and worldwide recognition means that human resource management has brought prosperity to the company (Boxall 2011).

The following are the ways through which HRM delivers its objectives to organizations:

Staffing objectives. The first responsibility of the human resource management is to ensure that the firm it is under is properly staffed and with the best from the market. With this knowledge human resource managers design job opportunities and decide which qualifications will be best suited for the contract of that given job (Carbery, n.d.).After having job opportunities human resource managers go to the market to compete for the best employees available with other organizations to ensure that the only get the best. All the goals and objectives of a company will only be achieved after the company has got employees to start working on the aspirations and goals(Fields et.al 2009).

Performance and administrative objectives; Once all the employees have been hired and fully settled, it is then the responsibility of managers to ensure that these employees are well motivated to work their best to bring returns to the organization. Bargaining with trade union officials over the working conditions of workers can be a great source of motivation to boost the morale of workers to work their level best. Promotions, benefits, and increased pays can also work as motivational techniques to bring workers to work (Cascio and Boudreau, n.d.).

Administrative objectives are put in place to ensure the smooth operation of a company. Individual and group data must be kept accurately to record important things like terms of contract, payments, qualifications, and conditions for termination of the contract. This will be important in ensuring that the organization is aware and practices its affairs in line with rules and regulations of the government.

How HRM varies in different Organizations and Sectors as well as Sizes

Although all human resource management functions share the same goals in organizations, HRM in public sectors will differ with HRM in private sectors. At the same time, HRM will be different when being conducted in a large company compared to HRM in a small company (Chalofsky, 2014). There are many differences between human resource management in large companies and the same in small companies despite the fact that all departments almost share the same objectives and goals.

For instance, the size of the company will largely affect the way things are run in an organization. In a small company, office space, the number of workers, number of customers, profit returns, as well as a number of investors will be small (Cooper and Burke, 2012). Being a human resource manager in such a company will mean that an individual will have to handle other responsibilities apart from HRM as the number he or she is dealing with is so small which later reflects on the amount of work he will be doing.

On the other hand, large companies have large numbers of employees at their disposal and a human resource manager will have to recruit several assistant human resource managers to help him or she runs the department (Barney 1991).

In terms of responsibilities, large companies have much more responsibilities compared to small companies. With a small number of employees, small companies have less work that requires to be done by the human resource manager and can easily overlap with other responsibilities. The situation is not the same with large companies where a lot of responsibility is granted to HRM to have to deal with the entire workforce to ensure a smooth running of the company (Hunter et al., n.d.).

While looking into private and public sectors, there are major differences that are in the human resource of both sectors. For example, in private sectors, HRM looks at attraction and retention of employees but the case is opposite for the public sector. While the public sector employers are trying to rein in on their departments due to financial constraints, it is not the same in private sectors (Ideological Evolution of Human Resource Management, 2017).

There are many theories that try to explain change management in human resource management and the first theory is the organizational change management theory. According to this theory five components and seven strategies were put down to help with coping with the issue of change in organizations. The components include personal valence, efficacy, appropriateness, support, and discrepancy all of which are key areas when undergoing organizational changes. It is not easy going through change and while some people are adamant to change others are resistant therefore it is important to appreciate the Harris model.

The second important model theory of change management is the theory of safety-high reliability organizations. The theory is based on institutions that have capabilities of doing well better than other when times of financial crisis kicks in. This model is set to help such companies from despairing and the need to forge forward and not give up (Lawler and Boudreau, n.d.)

John P Kotter’s model of change involves eight steps in leading change where he views a change process in an organization as a holistic period where involved members require assistance in going through. The eight steps are:

Creation of a sense of urgency about the need to adopt change. Through the use of strategic planning tools, John proposes that management can create an urgency in the need to change and encourage employees to adopt the change as well as stakeholders.

Through forming a guiding coalition, Kotter insists strong leadership which will create the need to change. Leadership brings about a source of energy that if used right it can influence an employee to change (Torrington 1998).

Development of vision and strategy for the reason why the organization needs to undergo change will help management in convincing workers to change. A strong vision and strategy will pass a message on its own to the people. Kotter’s fourth step which involves communicating the stated vision is important as it will help bring all the employees together. This can be done through email or in meetings.

Removal of obstacles and enabling action to be taken comes in as the fifth step where all the obstacles that might hinder people from adopting the change are removed. Generation of short term wins is the next step where short term goals are made which should be realistic and achievable.

Building on the change that is about to happen in the organization will be of importance as it aids in refining the change process. Lastly, there is a need to anchor changes in the culture of the organization where he suggests reports from time to time showing progress being made.

Kurt Lewin proposed a model of change where he says change can only occur in a three-stage procedure. Unfreezing is the first stage where people are required to let go of the past mindset and be open to new ideas and change. The second stage is where change is actually occurring and is a period of confusion and frustrations. The final stage is the refreezing stage where the mindset is accepting change and going back into a state of comfortability.

Legg’s theory proposes on employees strategic plan to work together to achieve the goals and objectives of their organization through the adoption of new technology, process, and job transformations. He focuses on the responsibilities of the employees and their perspective to change as a critical stage in a company’s motive to move into the future.

Tyson’s model of change mainly focuses on the organizational change components that are required if an organization wishes to undergo the process of change. In his model, he proposes that aspects such as planning, training, communication, and assessment are vital in order to complete the change process. All these proposals are to be achieved by both management and the employees.

The main purpose of this model is to help organize human resource management functions. Ulrich suggested that in order for a department of human resource to function, it must be segmented into four compartments: strategic partner, administrative expert, employee champion, and change agent. Ulrich suggested that dividing the HR function into four potions will help reach the goals of the company faster and more efficiently. 

The function of HRM is tied to the success of an organization. I would get reports from the managers before me and use them to get to know how the employees were working in the past, the challenges they were facing, and their achievements. I would also conduct a survey to be able to know the efficiency of the human resource manager and through that, I will be able to know if the work he did was of good standards or of low quality.

I could also use statistics and ratios in trying to get the performance of the human resource manager which usually helps most of the time. This is because all the data of the work he had done in the past would be recorded and I would be able to analyze his performance (Meifert, Ulrich and Potter, 2013). 

The human resource department has a large responsibility in the overall look of a company that is why a functional HR department is thought to bring the entire organization success. In our world today, many organizations are faced with the challenge of having to make the most out of the limited resources they have. This has always been a challenge and the reason why many companies have collapsed. The only option left for surviving companies is to improve the output of employees to gain the upper hand. (Singh, n.d.).

High-performance working is aimed at motivating the involvement of employees in work-related matters and maintain communication. Organizations, where transparency and ethics are upheld, will be very easy for them to get investors as they would feel safe being part of such a company 

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