Role of HR Manager - Human Resource Management | Human Resource Management - B Com PDF Download

Role of Human Resource Manager

A human resource manager plays a variety of roles in accordance with the need of the situation. These are given below:

1. The Conscience Role under this role the human resource manager reminds the management of their moral and ethical obligations towards employees.

2. The Counsellor Role under this role he encourages the employees to meet him frequently for consultation and discussion of their mental, physical and career problems.

3. The Mediator Role He tries to settle disputes between labour and management, between an individual and a team and serves as a peace maker and linking-pin between different departments/divisions of an organisation.

4. The Spokesman Role under this role he works as a spokesman for his organisation.

5. The Problem Solver’s Role He is a problem solver in respect of issues involving human resource management and overall organisational planning.

6. The Change-Agent Role He serves as a change-agent in respect of introducing and implementing major institutional changes. He is an innovator in personnel matters.

7. The House Keeper Role under this role he looks after the safety, health, welfare etc. of employees.

8. The Decision-Making Role He plays a dominant role in the decision-making process and takes decisions regarding both major and minor issues of the human resources. He formulates objectives, policies and programmes of human resource management.

9. The Executive Role Once decisions are taken he plays a dominant role in executing these decisions, programmes etc.

10. The Clerical Role He plays this role by time-keeping, calculating wages, salaries, allowances, incentives, compensation and maintaining of records and the like.

Organisation of Personnel Department

Organisation requires the creation of structural relationships among the different departments, the people and other resources to achieve the desired objectives. In order to combine and coordinate the efforts of people working at different levels in the organisation, proper relationship among them in terms of authority and responsibility should be set up. For this any of the following types of organisation structure may be set up.

(i)  Line Organisation

(ii)  Line and Staff Organisation

(iii) Functional Organisation

I. Personnel Department in Line Organisation

It is the oldest and the simplest form of organisation structure and also known as the scalar or military organisation. Under this, the line of authority flows in straight line from top to the bottom of the organisation.

II. Personnel Department in Line and Staff Organisation

In order to achieve the benefits of both the line and functional organisation structures, the line and staff structure has been evolved. Under it, staff positions are attached to line executives. Line refers to those  positions which have the responsibility and authority and are accountable for accomplishment of organisational objectives. Staff elements are those which have responsibility and authority for providing advice and service to line in the attainment of objectives. Under this, personnel department provides advice and assistance on personnel matters to all departments. Line and Staff Organisation is more suitable to a large organisation:

III. Personnel Department in Functional Organisation

Under this, all activities are grouped together according to certain functions like production, marketing, finance and personnel and each function is put under the charge of a specialist. Thus, each  functional head performs a specialised function for the entire enterprise. The functional organisation is based on the concept of “functional foremanship”suggested by F.W. Taylor.

IV. Personnel Department in Divisionalised Organisation

Divisionalisation is an alternative way of grouping organisational members by aggregating all the specialists needed to produce a given product or service. The principle here is one of assembling, within one department, individuals with complementary but diverse expertise rather than similar expertise. There are different kinds of divisionalisation like product, service, territories.

V. Personnel Department in Matrix Structure

Under this method, every member is placed under dual authority i.e., bosses, one boss is the head of their own department to which the members permanently belong. The other is the head of the project to which they have been temporarily assigned. This method is often referred to as a “Multiple Command  System.”

Personnel Policies

‘Says Flippo, a policy is a man-made rule of pre-determined course of action that is established to guide the performance of work towards the organisational objectives. Personnel policies constitute guides to action. Personnel policies guide the course of action intended to accomplish personnel objectives.

The term, ‘Personnel Policy’ has been define by Richard P. Calhoon, “Personnel policies constitute guides to action. They furnish the general standards or basis on which decisions are taken. Their genesis lies in an organisation’s values, philosophy, concepts and principles.”

Personnel Policies refer to principles and rules of conduct which “formulate redefine, break into details and decide a number of actions” that govern the relationship with employees in the attainment of the organisational objectives.

Thus, personnel policies reflect the recognised intentions of top management with respect to the human resources of the organisation.

Need for Personnel Policies

Every organisation should have personnel in order to accomplish the objectives of the personnel as well as the organisation. Dale S. Beach gave the following reasons to have personnel policies.

(i)  To consider the basic needs of the organisations and employees,

(ii)  To minimise favouritism and discrimination in treating the employees;

(iii)   To ensure that the action will be continued though the managers shift in key jobs; (iv)  To have standards of performance.

(v)   To create and develop employee enthusiasm and loyalty.

Advantages of Personnel Policies

Personnel Policies offer various advantages: 

1. Confidence Policies make the employees aware of where they stand in the organisation and create confidence in them while confronting routine and recurring problems.

2. Coordination Personnel policies help the employees in predicting accurately the actions and decisions of others to ensure steady course of action.

3. Continuity It transmits the company’s heritage from one generation of executives to another. The wisdom of an executive is retained in the form of written policy and successor can gain from the wisdom of their predecessors.

4. Team-work A well-prepared policy manual enables people at all levels of an organisation to see the institutional goals and the principles.

5. Delegation of Authority well written personnel policies help a manager to delegate authority  as a written policy indicate what are expected from different persons. Buck passing on both sides is minimised.

6. Decision-making well defined personnel policies serve as guides for making sound decisions by summarizing past experiences.

7. Uniformity Sound personnel policies minimise discrimination, favouritism and personal prejudices and ensure uniform and consistent treatment of all employees.

8. Management by exception. The executive is free from repetitive, time consuming decisions and can devote more time to important decisions.

9. Efficiency sound policies enable the management to find out the variance between actual and standard performance so that he can correct such deviations.

Coverage of Personnel Policies

In most organisations personnel policies generally cover the following subjects:

(i)   Recruitment and Selection.

(ii)  Training

(iii) Compensation,

(iv) Arrangement for work

(v)  Employee services and

(vi) Industrial relations.

Michael Armstrong has classified the coverage of personnel policies on the basis of functions which are given below:

1. Social Responsibility—which includes equally treating the employees, quality of work, safety of life and health, safe and conducive working conditions.

2. Employment Policies—Provision of equal employment opportunities - selecting the candidates based on job requirement.

3. Promotion Policies—which should be fair and just for all employees.

4. Development Policies—include training programmes, techniques, rewarding system, qualifications and experience of the trainer, encouraging employees for self advancement, etc.

5.   Relation Policies—includes policies regarding motivation, morale, communication, leadership styles, grievance procedure, disciplinary procedures, employee counselling.