HRM Assignment 9: Nature, Scope of HRM

{ Posted on 7:26 AM by Ariel Serenado }
For this assignment we are tasked to interview Human Resource Manager personnel or manager regarding his concept on the nature, scope and role of human resource management.

Since our adopted company for our Human Resource Management Major Paper is the Department of Education region XI we also grabbed the opportunity to interview the HRM personnel in the above-stated matter. Our interviewee was Rosalaine Marangan, Administrative Officer V and also the HRM head of DepED.

Definition:

Human Resource Management has come to be recognized as an inherent part of management, which is concerned with the human resources of an organization. Its objective is the maintenance of better human relations in the organization by the development, application and evaluation of policies, procedures and programmes relating to human resources to optimize their contribution towards the realization of organizational objectives.

In other words, HRM is concerned with getting better results with the collaboration of people. It is an integral but distinctive part of management, concerned with people at work and their relationships within the enterprise. HRM helps in attaining maximum individual development, desirable working relationship between employees and employers, employees and employees, and effective modeling of human resources as contrasted with physical resources. It is the recruitment, selection, development, utilization, compensation and motivation of human resources by the organization.

Evolution:

The early part of the century saw a concern for improved efficiency through careful design of work. During the middle part of the century emphasis shifted to the employee's productivity. Recent decades have focused on increased concern for the quality of working life, total quality management and worker's participation in management. These three phases may be termed as welfare, development and empowerment.
As for the group’s interview we have gathered the following answers:
Nature

1. Ogranisations is the people who manage.
2. HRM involves acquisitioning, developing, maintaining
3. Decisions relating to employees must be integrated.
4. Decisions made must influence the effectiveness of an organization.
5. HRM functions are confirmed to Non-business organization also.

Specifically, HRM has also these following nature:

Human Resource Management is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each are met. The various features of HRM include:

• It is pervasive in nature as it is present in all enterprises.
• Its focus is on results rather than on rules.
• It tries to help employees develop their potential fully.
• It encourages employees to give their best to the organization.
• It is all about people at work, both as individuals and groups.
• It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results.
• It helps an organization meet its goals in the future by providing for competent and well-motivated employees.
• It tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people working at various levels in the organization.
• It is a multidisciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and inputs drawn from psychology, economics, etc.

Furthermore, concerned with the transactions on retirement, hiring and any human resource-related operations.

Scope

According to Ma’am Rosalaine that the operation as to hoe the personnel respond to a certain transaction is centralized. Meaning to say, all matters are mandated by the administrative office and beyond that is not entertained by their personnel. They are only up to what the center office is mandating.
The scope of HRM is very wide:

1. Personnel aspect-This is concerned with manpower planning, recruitment, selection, placement, transfer, promotion, training and development, layoff and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives, productivity etc.
2. Welfare aspect-It deals with working conditions and amenities such as canteens, creches, rest and lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety, recreation facilities, etc.
3. Industrial relations aspect-This covers union-management relations, joint consultation, collective bargaining, grievance and disciplinary procedures, settlement of disputes, etc. As for the industrial relations aspect, there has been no union-management relation existing within the firm.
HRM is one of the pillars of any organization. That is why they are very particular with the roles and functions of the personnel within the HRM division. Roles or functions are as follows:

1. Human resource or manpower planning.
2. Recruitment, selection and placement of personnel.
3. Training and development of employees.
4. Appraisal of performance of employees.
5. Taking corrective steps such as transfer from one job to another.
6. Remuneration of employees.
7. Social security and welfare of employees.
8. Setting general and specific management policy for organizational relationship.
9. Collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance handling.
10. Staffing the organization.
11. Aiding in the self-development of employees at all levels.
12. Developing and maintaining motivation for workers by providing incentives.
13. Reviewing and auditing manpower management in the organization
14. Potential Appraisal. Feedback Counseling.
15. Role Analysis for job occupants.
16. Job Rotation.
17. Quality Circle, Organization development and Quality of Working Life.

Human resource management is also in the process of change with regard to the nature of the role performed. In the past many functions were performed by HRM professionals themselves, the role they are taking on, is one of consultant to line management, where line managers perform many of the functions traditionally handled by HRM professionals. Similarly there is a trend in which businesses are shedding all functions that are not directly related to core business, and in the process many HRM functions are being outsourced. Hence the change in the nature of services provided.

The activity of generating unit standards and designing qualifications can be used as an opportunity to catapult HRM practices into the future. To do this, those issues which are going to shape the future for HRM need to be identified and analyzed, especially in relation to current roles that will still be required of HRM practitioners. These issues are central to the activity of generating unit standards (e.g. outsourcing, societal responsibility) and their impact on HRM roles (e.g. staffing, performance management).

To conclude Human Resource Management should be linked with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational cultures that foster innovation and flexibility. All the above futuristic visions coupled with strategic goals and objectives should be based on 3 H's of Heart, Head and Hand i.e., we should feel by Heart, think by Head and implement by Hand.


Source:
http://www.citehr.com/79624-nature-scope-human-resource-management.html#post321558
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_nature_and_scope_of_human_resource_managemen

MIS Assignment 9: Information Environment

{ Posted on 7:06 AM by Ariel Serenado }
For this assignment we are tasked to identify an Information Environment. Let us first be acquainted with what is Information Environment. The production of information is on the increase and ways to deal with this effectively are required. There is the need to ensure that quality of information is not lost amongst masses of digital data created everyday. If we can continue to improve the management, interrogation an serving ‘quality’ information, there is huge potential to enhance knowledge creation across learning and research communities. The aim of the information environment is to help provide convenient access to resources for research and learning through the use of resource discovery and resource management tools and the development of better services and practice. The Information Environment ails to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location.

By knowing Information Environment, I have chosen the E-Infrastructure as an information environment. Actually, this kind of information environment is under The Research Infrastructures part of the FP7 Capacities Programme, this supports an innovative way of conducting scientific research (referred to as e-science) by the creation environment for academic and industrial research in which virtual communities share, federate and exploit the collective power of European scientific facilities.

The term e-infrastructure refers to this new research environment in which all researchers – whether working in the context of their home institutions or in national or multinational scientific initiatives – have shared access to unique or distributed scientific facilities (including data, instruments, computing and communications), regardless of their type and locations in the world. The e-infrastructure activity will extend and reinforce the high capacity communication infrastructure; strengthen multidisciplinary grid and supercomputing infrastructures; expand scientific data infrastructure; encourage the adoption of e-infrastructure by an increasing number of user communities; stimulate new organizational models; and support the construction of new computation and data treatment facilities. Specifically, e-infrastructure aims to improve the capacity of he sector to manage, discover the use of information resources. This will be achieved by delivering a range of benefits to the sector that align with the general benefits, these are the following:

  • Enhanced capacity, knowledge and skills to enable positive and informed change in the sector
  • Guidance to the sector on ‘best practice’ models for using technology that can be used at departmental, institutional, regional or national levels
  • Strategic leadership to the sector and the other bodies in specialist areas to influence national and international agendas
  • Knowledge and experience as a basis for future funding decisions
  • New or enhanced services, infrastructure, standards or applications that may be used at departmental, institutional, regional or national levels

If I’ll get myself involved in such environment, I’ll be doing my roles that I must bear to satisfy the aim of this environment. One role that I will be possessing is the role to improve information management practices, because this is a key focus for many organizations, across both the public and private sector. Information environment is, however, much more than just technology. Equally importantly, it is about the business processes and practices that underpin the creation and use of information. Another role is develop guidelines for description and build systems that do a better job of supporting the information-seeking tasks of users; to be aware complexity of certain organizations, thus provide some necessary actions to overcome challenges in terms of planning and implementing any projects. Of course, these roles I have mentioned will not be perfectly done by my intellectual properties only, I have to adheres some options, ways and means in order to satisfy these roles. With this demand, the principles of Information Organization and representation is of big help to realize the roles I must posses.

Now, as I go over the internet I have known the principles of information management, I think these are most likely similar with information organization. We all know that an information management encompasses people, process, technology and content. Each of these must be addresses if information organization projects are to succeed. Here are the principles:

  • Recognize (and manage) complexity
  • Focus on adoption
  • Deliver tangible and visible benefits
  • Prioritize according to business needs
  • Take the journey of a thousand steps
  • Provide a strong leadership
  • Mitigate risks
  • Communicate extensively
  • Aim to deliver a seamless user experience
  • Choose the first project very carefully

With the first one which is to recognize (and manage) complexity, we all know for the fact that organizations are very complex environment in which to deliver concrete solutions. With these principle it will help my role to be perform correctly by way of fully centralizing information management activities, to ensure that every activity is tightly controlled and by way of rolling out rigid, standardized solutions across whole organization, even though individual business areas may have different needs. In practice, however, there is no way of avoiding the inherent complexities within organizations. New approaches to information management must therefore be found that recognize (and manage) this complexity. Risks must then be identified and mitigated throughout the project, to ensure that organizational complexities do not prevent the delivery of effective solutions.

In practice, most information management systems need the active participation of staff throughout the organization, this is the implication of the second principle. Staff must save all the key files into the document/records management system; front-line staff must capture call details in the customer relationship management system. In all these cases, the challenges is to gain the sufficient adoption to ensure that the required information is captured by the system. Without a critical mass of usage, corporate repositories will not contain enough information to be useful. This may include:

  • Identifying the ‘what’s in it for me’ factors for end users of the system
  • Communicating clearly to all staff the purpose and benefits of the project
  • Carefully targeting initial projects to build momentum for the project
  • Conducting extensive change management and cultural change activities throughout the project.
  • Ensuring that the systems that are deployed are useful and usable for the staff.

Another principle implies that delivering tangible benefits involves identifying concrete Business needs that must be met. This allows meaningful measurement of the impact of the projects on the operation of the organization. As involved in an information environment such as e-infrastructure one’s implementations should target issues or needs that are very visible within the organization. When the solutions are delivered, the improvement should be obvious, and widely promoted throughout the organization. For example, improving the information available to call centre staff can have a very visible and tangible impact on customer service. Another principle that can help in possessing my role in the environment that I have chosen is to prioritize according to business needs. It can be difficult to where to start when planning information management projects. While some organization attempt to prioritize projects according to the ‘simplicity’ of the technology to de deployed, this is not a meaningful approach. In particular, this often doesn’t deliver short-term benefits that are tangible and visible. Instead of this technology-driven approach<>

Also, mitigate risks is also an important principle that help posses the role. Due to the inherent complexity of the environment within organizations, there are many risks in implementing information management solutions. These risks include:

  • Selecting an inappropriate technology solution
  • Time and budget overruns
  • Changing business requirements
  • Technical issues, particularly relating to integrating systems
  • Failure to gain adoption by staff

At the outset of planning an information management strategy, the risks should be clearly identified. An approach must then be identified for each risk, either avoiding or mitigating the risk. Risk management approaches should then be used to plan all aspects of the project, including the activities conducted and the budget spent. To communicate extensively is also a big help in possessing my roles in the information environment I have chosen. Extensive communication from the project team is critical for a successful information management initiative. This communication ensures that staffs have a clear understanding of the project, and the benefits it will deliver. This is a pre-requisite for achieving the required level of adoption.
For all these reasons, the first step in an information management project should be to develop a clear communications ‘message’. This should then be supported by a communications plan that describes target audiences, and methods of communication. Project teams should also consider establishing a ‘project site’ on the intranet as the outset, to provide a location for planning documents, news releases, and other updates. Above all, when one is engaging himself’/herself in an information environment, one must take into account the principle that would affect the entire engagement activities of the information environment. The principle I am talking about is choosing a project very carefully.

The choice of conduct projects is part of broader information management strategy is critical. This project must be selected carefully, to ensure that it:

• demonstrates the value of the information management strategy
• builds momentum for future activities
• generates interest and enthusiasm from both end-users and stakeholders
• delivers tangible and visible benefits
• addresses an important or urgent business need
• can be clearly communicated to staff and stakeholders
• assists the project team in gaining further resources and support

Actions speak louder than words. The project is the single best (and perhaps only) opportunity to set the organization on the right path towards better information management practices and technologies. Te project must therefore be chosen according to its ability to act as a ‘catalyst’ for further organizational and cultural changes. In practice, this often involves starting with one problem or one area of the business that the organization as a whole would be interested in, and cares about. For example, starting by restructuring the corporate policies and procedures will generate little interest or enthusiasm. In contrast, delivering a system that greatly assists salespeople in the field would be something that could be widely promoted throughout the organization.

In practice, challenges have never turned its way. Challenges encompass once facing the roles in an information environment. Organizations are confronted with many information management problems and issues. In many ways, the growth of electronic information (rather than paper) has only worsened these issues over the last decade or two.

Common challenges that might occur in performing such roles within the e-infrastructure as an information environment.

• Large number of disparate information management systems.
• Little integration or coordination between information systems.
• Range of legacy systems requiring upgrading or replacement.
• Direct competition between information management systems.
• No clear strategic direction for the overall technology environment.
• Limited and patchy adoption of existing information systems by staff.
• Poor quality of information, including lack of consistency, duplication, and out-of-date information.
• Little recognition and support of information management by senior management.
• Limited resources for deploying, managing or improving information systems.
• Lack of enterprise-wide definitions for information types and values (no corporate-wide taxonomy).
• Large number of diverse business needs and issues to be addressed.
• Lack of clarity around broader organizational strategies and directions.
• Difficulties in changing working practices and processes of staff.
• Internal politics impacting on the ability to coordinate activities enterprise-wide.


Source:
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_effectiveim
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/