Strategic Human Resource Management Of An Organisation

In second task explains the importance of employment relations within an organisation. It also describes the role performed by the actors involved in employment relations. From this report, it has been found that SHRM and employment relations play a crucial role in the development and progress of an organisation. Both factors support toward development of an environment that fosters employees to improve their performance and contribute toward its success. It is recommended that each organisation whether public or private must treat its employees fairly at the workplace. So that employees can contribute at their best toward the achievement of organisational objectives.

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TASK 1

INTRODUCTION:-

Strategic human resource management refers to the process of connecting human resources with strategic objectives for improving performance by developing a culture that fosters flexibility, innovation, and competitive advantage. This task elaborates on the relation between business strategy and human resource practices (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). It also describes SHRM models and theoretical approaches that help an organisation achieve competitive advantage. Further, it talks about performance management and HR practices linked with this such as scheduling activities and tasks, monitoring performance, performance appraisal, and performance review/feedback.

MAIN BODY

Business strategy:- It refers to a firm's working plan that helps in achieving its vision, and objectives and achieving a competitive edge over competitors. Business strategies describe long-term business planning that provides guidelines to perform actions.

Human resource strategy:- It refers to the process of creating a long-term plan for the management and development of human resource working within the organisation (HR strategy, 2016). These strategies help in unifying and directing the behavior as well as the action of human resources to promote the overall development of employees in accordance with the requirements of organisation.

Relation between business and human resource strategy:-

Business strategy and human resource strategies are interrelated, as the overall strategy of an organisation provides direction through which organisational goals can be achieved. On the other hand, human resource strategies help in managing the employees so that these goals can be achieved effectively. HR managers mainly focus on the goals of the business as they are related to human resource policies and practices. Therefore, the business strategy helps in figuring out how manpower is spread across the different departments within an organisation. For instance, by developing a proper relationship between HR practices and organisational strategy, Mark & Spencer will be able to determine the manpower required to perform a particular project as management and retention of employees help in improving the performance outcome after the implication of business strategy. Hence, the relationship between business strategy and HR practices will help in achieving a competitive advantage and in improving performance outcomes.

Coordination between business strategies and human resources practices helps in achieving higher success and growth within the marketplace. In order to align organisational goals with employees' performance, integration is crucial as it increases the efficiency and relevance of HRM within an organisation. Following are the types of integration

Vertical alignment:- This refers to the process of acquisition done by two companies that are not working on the same level in the value chain but are operating their operations in upstream or downstream activities in the value chain (Hohenstein, Feisel, and Hartmann, 2014). This helps the company in spreading its activities across the value chain and also provides the advantage of sourcing the raw material for production when it is involved in upstream acquisition. It helps in getting closer to the customer when the acquisition is downstream. For instance, Mark & Spencer can integrate vertically with other apparel companies that have flagship stores and sell a wide range of products that can get through regular retailers.

Horizontal integration:- It refers to the acquisition between the companies that are working on the same level of value chain within their business. Horizontal integration is essential when a company wants to achieve economies of scale as the same activities or products can be manufactured at a large scale with the help of this integration. For instance, Mark & Spencer can merge with other retailers like ASDA or ALDI, as these belong to the same category. So this merger will help in expanding their business at a large scale.

Strategical human resource management:-

SHRM refers to the practices of the human resource department that assists in attracting, developing, rewarding, and retaining employees for providing benefits to both employees and organisation. HR department which involves SHRM practices do not work independently rather they try to interact with other departments to determine their goals and formulate strategies for aligning the goals of individuals with organisational goals. SHRM supports the goal of the rest of organisation by utilizing and integrating the skills of human resources to make other departments stronger and more effective (Ahmed and et. al., 2016). The matching model of SHRM will prove to be helpful to the Regional Business Innovation and Skills department, as this model defines how HRM Practices must be performed to support organisational strategy.

Here is a sample which explains the Importance & Role of Strategic Human Resource Management

Matching model of SHRM:-

This model shows the relation between organisational strategy and HRM practices as well as defines how HR activities must be designed to support the overall strategies of organisation. This model is divided into two parts where first part describes about integration of HR strategies and the second part depicts about HR cycle. The matching model provides a framework that helps in determining how the HRM policies derived from the mission and strategy of organisation which are further affected by micro-environmental factors (Bratton and Gold, 2017). It also depicts how functions like selection, appraisal, reward, and development are integrated to produce the required performance of employees.

The main objective of strategic human resource management is to ensure that the HR department of organisation is fully integrated into strategic planning so that the HRM policies can be accepted and utilized by the line manager in their day-to-day operations. The main theoretical approaches  of SHRM are divided into three categories, which are as explained below:

• Universalistic approach:- This approach states that there is a group of some best HRM practices and their adaptation will help in generating positive results regardless of any critical situation that may be faced by an organisation (Approaches to SHRM, 2018). The universalistic approach describes that best practices in relation to HR issues like recruitment, selection, training & development, and employee motivation are equally reliable to every company despite the varied aspects used within an organisation.  
• The contingency or best-fit approach: The best-fit approach disagrees with the universalistic theoretical approach and states that the presence of universal prescriptions to HR issues doesn't lead to promotive better performance. However in order to improve the performance of an organisation, integration between the HR policies and organisational policies is required.
• Resource-based view:- It is a mixture of strategic theories which seek to identify the resources that assist a firm in sustaining competitive advantage (Albrecht and et. al., 2015). These resources are a bundle of tangible and intangible assets, which include organisational processes, employment of skilled personnel, machinery, brand name, information & knowledge, etc.

Performance Management:-

It refers to an ongoing process between employees and their managers which provides feedback, accountability, and documentation for improving the performance outcome. Performance management is a very crucial function of the human resource department as it helps align the skill and talent of employees with organisational goals (Cardy and Leonard,  2014). This function involves a set of activities that are planned by the HR manager to ensure high performance or make sure that each business operation is performed effectively. The following points describe the set of activities performed by the human resource department:

• Scheduling activities and tasks:- The HR manager schedules the activities to be performed, the time taken by them, and the employees who are liable to perform these tasks. It helps in providing the information related to tasks to be performed by each employee which reduces the chance of misunderstanding among them related to work. By using these HR practices Mark & Spencer will be able to manage and minimize its operational time as each individual knows about the span of time in which they have to finish their work. So it helps in improving the performance and accomplishing the task on time. Apart from this, it may also have a negative impact on the activities of an organisation as it will create dependability among employees (Mone and London, 2018). It will also lead to delay in operations as after creating a schedule, activities are performed according to it which sometimes may avoid the task that is required to be performed urgently.
• Monitoring performance:- An HR officer also observes their employees while they are working to identify their level of performance as well as areas of improvement. By identifying these factors HR managers arrange proper training through which employees can improve their skills which further assists in improving performance. On the other hand, the manager also guides their employees in different methods to adopt for performing their tasks more effectively. By involving this HR practice, Mark & Spencer can improve the performance of employees as they get regular guidelines over their work. Hence the chance of error gets reduced which in turn will enhance the productivity level. On the other hand, it may have a negative impact as the regular intervention of seniors may disrupt the work of employees or they may get irritated or frustrated.  
• Performance appraisal:-  This is also considered to be the most crucial function of a human resource manager. Performance appraisal refers to the process through which the performance of employees is systematically evaluated by HR managers to determine the ability of an individual for their further growth. Underperformance appraisal, HR managers reward the employees who perform well. This helps encourage other employees to improve their performance to gain appraisals from higher management in terms of promotions, and incentives (Van Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan, 2015).  By adding these practices, Mark & Spencer can boost the confidence of employees which helps bring efficiency to their operations. Instead of this, performance appraisal may also create disputes among employees. For instance, when two employees are working in the same position and perform similar tasks, and if one of them gets rewarded for their work then another employee will get demotivated. This action of the HR manager may create a misunderstanding between the two employees which may affect the performance of another worker.
• Performance review/feedback:- HR manager regularly provide feedback to their employees about their work and overall performance. This helps in identifying the errors that affect their performance and areas in which they are required to improve. Performance feedback is beneficial for both employees as well as human resource department. As it helps employees determine their level of development and improvement throughout the year. By involving this activity in their  HR practices, Mark & Spencer can identify the need for training to improve performance as well as decide the job or task for employees according to their skills. But apart from this, it may also have a negative impact on the performance of employees. As they may get demotivated after getting negative feedback on their performance.  

RECOMMENDATION:-

For designing an effective performance management system, the Regional Business Innovation and Skills department is recommended to use an effective plan that describes the activities to be performed. These activities must be scheduled according to their priority so that each task can be performed in a timely manner. Apart from this, it is recommended that Mark & Spencer must provide performance appraisals to their employees on time. Rewards are not bounded to an annual basis only, they must be extended to workers according to their performance and on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Apart from this regular training must be provided to employees so that performance can be improved which contributes toward positive outcomes. Further, it also assists employees in being adaptable to changes that are anticipated within as well as outside the organisation. As it helps in dealing with future challenges and achieving competitive advantage.

CONCLUSION

From the above-given task, it can summarized that strategic human resource management is very essential part of an organisation as it focuses on linking the personal goals of employees with the overall organizational objective. This will further assist in managing the performance of employees using various HR practices so that an organisation can achieve a competitive advantage and become able to deal with organisational changes.

REFERENCES

• Ahmed, T. M., and et. al., 2016, May. Studying the effectiveness of application performance management (APM) tools for detecting performance regressions for web applications: an experience report. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (pp. 1-12). ACM.
• Albrecht, S. L., and et. al., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices, and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance. 2(1). pp.7-35.
• Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
• Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
• Cardy, R. and Leonard, B., 2014. Performance Management: Concepts, Skills and Exercises: Concepts, Skills and Exercises. Routledge.
• Hohenstein, N. O., Feisel, E. and Hartmann, E., 2014. Human resource management issues in supply chain management research: a systematic literature review from 1998 to 2014. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. 44(6). pp.434-463.
• Mone, E. M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
• Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J., 2015. Performance management in the public sector. Routledge.
• Online

TASK 2

INTRODUCTION

Employment relation refers to a legal agreement between an employee and employer that shows the terms & conditions in which a person performs their duty within an organisation. It describes how an employer treats or behaves with its workers at the workplace (Jacoby, 2018)(Kim and Bae, 2017). This task elaborates on employment relations and various theories related to it such as unitary and conflict. In addition to this, it also describes the role that an actor plays within employment relations.   

MAIN BODY

Employment relations:-

It refers to the study of the regulation of employment relationships between employee as well as employers. It describes how a manager interacts and treats their employees and vice versa. By using employee relation theories a company can develop an understanding related to this regulation will help them in positioning responsibilities to better lead their workplace (Employment Relationship, 2018.). It also assists workers in maintaining an environment of equality, where their issues will be heard and proper actions will be taken. Following are the theories of Employment relation:

• Unitary theory:-The unitary perspective vies an organisation as a single authority or loyalty structure. Unitary theory state that an organisation must have a single body of authority that manages all the decisions related to business. These leaders ensure to development of worker loyalty at the workplace. They create unified goals to inspire employees to work hard. However, businesses that employ this theory are good at motivating employees and aligning their work toward a certain goal. For instance, by applying this theory Mark & Spencer can centralize their actions which helps them in bringing coordination and avoids conflict related to authority.  However, this theory is being criticized by trade unions as employees have no power while managers have all the authority.
• Conflict theory:- This theory views an organisation as a union of sectional groups in which employees are different in terms of their values, interests, and objectives. Conflict theory states that employees possess different aspirations from that of management which is the main cause of conflict. According to this theory, conflicts are inevitable, functional, and normal situations within organisation that may be solved by compromising and collective bargaining. Under this type of environment, decisions are taken by group efforts and mutual understanding. By applying this theory Mark & Spencer can delegate authority among employees which helps in completing tasks quickly, as employees don't have to wait for taking permission of higher authority (McBride,  Hebson, and Holgate, 2015). But apart from this major drawback of applying this theory is an increase in conflicts or clashes of interest among employees.

Roles of the Actors within the Employment Relationship

Employment relation describes the interaction between any of the actors which is of three types i.e. employees, employer, and state. These all work together within an organisation with some set of rules to develop better relationships and understanding. The role of each actor in terms of the employment relationship can be better understood by the following points:

• Management/employer:- The main role of the employer is to recruit workers, assign them tasks, and remunerate them for the work performed by them (Rousseau, 2015). Employers must ensure that work is assigned according to the capabilities of workers so that they can perform their duties effectively which will be beneficial for both employees as well as employers. Apart from this they are also liable to inform about any changes to their member in industrial relations, offer advice, and train on industrial issues.
• Employees/union:- Unions are associations of workers that seek to improve the social being of their members as well as ensure that workers will receive their salaries on time (Mishra, Boynton, and Mishra,  2014). On the other hand, employees are responsible for improving the terms & conditions of their employment by exchanging views with management and voicing their grievances.
• Government:- The role of state government is to influence and regulate industrial relations by formulating rules, laws, agreements, awards of court, etc. Apart from this role of government is to hear the grievances that employees have and provide proper judgment by involving labor and tribunal court.

These all are the actors which are involved in the employment relationship concept, contribution, and coordination which help in building up a healthy relationship between employer and employee. The nature of work as well as employment relationships are changing continuously which has improved the scenario of employee and employer relations to a great extent.  As earlier, employees are more humiliated and exploited in the workplace. They are forced to work more and are not remunerated for their work performed (Changing Nature of Employee Relations, 2017.). This environment leads to the development of trade unions which promote a healthy and fair environment for employees to work. Further, various rules and legislations are formed to protect the rights of employees and trade union ensures that these laws must be followed by employers (Geppert, Williams, and Wortmann, 2015). Therefore, trade union works in favor of employees to provide them with a secure and healthy working environment where they can work effectively and are fairly remunerated.

RECOMMENDATION

Employees are considered an asset of the company which contributes toward the success of an organisation so they must be treated fairly and equally. This will help in developing job satisfaction among them which supports in improving productivity. As health employment relation is the key to employment retention, higher productivity, and organisational success. Therefore, it is recommended to Mark & Spencer that management must identify the need of employees and must try to improve their organisational norms and procedures. This help in creating such a working environment that fosters employees to work effectively to achieve organisational goals.

Apart from this employee participation and employee voice also play a crucial role in improving the employment relations within an organisation. Active participation of employees in decision making process and other activities will help in conveying the employee's will regarding the current process to a higher authority. In addition to this employees of Mark & Spencer must also speak up whenever they are forced to perform some action which they do not want to do. Apart from this they also speak up over every unfair decision or change that is implemented without their concern. This helps in improving the relationship between employees as well as employers. Further, it also helps in improving the working conditions of other employees working in Mark & Spencer.

CONCLUSION

From the above task, it can concluded that employment relations is one of the crucial factors that must be managed by an organisation in order to achieve higher success and growth. As employees are the main part of a company that performs activities that support an organisation in achieving their desired goal. So in order to achieve maximum productivity from their employee it is very essential for employer to develop a healthy and safe working environment to keep their workers happy to achieve higher growth in market place.

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REFERENCES

• Geppert, M., Williams, K. and Wortmann, M., 2015. Micro-political game playing in Lidl: A comparison of store-level employment relations. European Journal of Industrial Relations. 21(3). pp.241-257.
• Jacoby, S.M., 2018. The embedded corporation: Corporate governance and employment relations in Japan and the United States. Princeton University Press.
• Kim, D.O. and Bae, J., 2017. Employment relations and HRM in South Korea. Routledge.
• McBride, A., Hebson, G. and Holgate, J., 2015. Intersectionality: are we taking enough notice in the field of work and employment relations? Work, employment, and society. 29(2). pp.331-341.
• Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication. 51(2). pp.183-202.
• Rousseau, D., 2015. I-deals: Idiosyncratic Deals Employees Bargain for Themselves: Idiosyncratic Deals Employees Bargain for Themselves. Routledge.
• Online 
• changing nature of employee relations. 2017. [Online] Available through <http://www.hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/strategy-news/new-report-reveals-changing-nature-of-employee-relations/39887>./
• Employment Relationship. 2018. [Online] Available through<http://ilo.org/ifpdial/areas-of-work/labour-law/WCMS_CON_TXT_IFPDIAL_EMPREL_EN/lang--en/index.htm>./

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