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THE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

NGOs

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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33013.29924

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THE ROLE OF HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
IN DEVELOMNET OF NGOs

ZAID ALSHALAN
JULY 2021
 THE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

ABSTRACT 1
1. INTRODUCTION 2
2. Human Resources Management & NGOs 3
3. Benefits Of Creation Human Resources Unit 7
4. Human Resources Practices 8
5. Strategic HRM 10
6. CONCLUSION 12
REFERENCES 13
ABSTRACT:
Non-governmental organizations are facing a competing demand of providing high-quality
services in front of reduced funds. Good management contributes positively to use their
resources efficiently.

This report centres on the importance of Human resources practices to provide the
perception of how HRM relates to organizational performance. The paper investigates
how the HR programs and HR practices have the potential, to contribute positively to
performance and facilitate organizational effectiveness. It provides further insight into
strategic orientations that enhance employee skills and motivation.

These are considered significant means for coping with challenges, particularly in
challenging economic, political and social environments.

Keywords:

Human resources, Strategic management, HR practices, NGO Performance, Challenges.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, non-governmental organizations have to demonstrate accountability to
meet performance requirements and gain the commitment of their diverse stakeholders.
The success of these organizations is highly dependent on the governance and
management systems in place.

Human resources management is considered the most important asset of an organization,

and when they are managed well can be a source of competitive advantage. However,
very few organizations can fully harness its potential.

In light of this, this report provides a short and accessible overview of the importance of
Human resource management (HRM) in the development of NGOs.
The report explores how the improvement of NGOs highly links in the adapting of
functional HRM systems and how this kind of management can facilitate solving problems
such as stability, neglect, lack of funds, sustainable growth. The report examines how good
HR practices foster employees’ commitment and how HRM relates to organizational
performance.

Organizational culture, which is strongly influenced by the approach to leadership and

management in the organization, is equally important. To be relevant, HRM needs to
appreciate the different roles that it is required to fill and reflect on and develop its
capacity in respect of these.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

2. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT & NGOs

A. BASIC HR CONCEPT

The Human resource management (HRM) is a strategic approach that focuses on

managing people in organizations in a structured and thorough manner. This Process
refers to policies, practices and systems which influence employees’ behaviour, attitude
and performance.
HRM is a crucial component that built the quality of Human capital, which plays a critical
role in creating and sustaining high-performance organizations.

IMPACT OF HRM ON ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE:

HRM Business Financial

Business HRM HRM
outcomes: outcomes: performance:
strategy strategy practices
- Engagement - Productivity - Profit
- Commitment - Quality - Sales
- Motivation - Customer - Market share
- Skill satisfaction - Market value

Figure 1 : Source Adapted from Armstrong (2015:57)

B. CHALLENGES OF HR IN NGOS

Many NGOs due to the small size and the scope of the organization do not have a human
resource (HR) unit or a human resource manager. Therefore, this affects the human resource
capacity.

i. HR CHALLENGES

Generally, NGOs faces diverse challenges in different areas:

 Financial Management: NGOs useless likely good wage system, incentive to motivate workers
and promotion.

 Hiring the best employees.

 Maintain employee’s productivity.

 Fostering an environment of continuous learning.

 Managing diversity: diversity of experiences, ideas, and perspectives and diverse cultures

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

It is important to create an environment that is comfortable, welcoming, and free of

conflict. It is crucial to integrate employees of different cultures and unit them towards a
common objective.
ii. ETHICAL DIMENSION

Boxall (2007) outlines the basic concepts of an ethical and practical framework in
organizations. He underlined the main organizational requirements and responsibilities.
They are not desk-bound activities but require vision, leadership, and hands-on
engagement to conduct an increasing development:

 Equal opportunities employer and treating people similarly in terms of learning and
development.

 Treat people with respecting Anti-Discrimination Policies (Adams, 1965 and Leventhal,
1980), i.e., workplace transparency enhance trust, helps to manage employees fairly and
consistently and consider the views and needs of employees properly.

 Perceived equity and justice on the employees’ (Adams, 1965 and Leventhal, 1980), i.e.,
employees should be provided with rewards and receive fair and equitable pay as
promised.

 Individuals should not be treated as a mere factor of production.

 Promote well-being at work and create such a positive environment, which is the main
concern of organizations.

 Individual treated fairly based on principles known as natural justice, i.e., individuals
should know the standards they are expected to achieve and the rules to which they are
expected to conform, they should be given a clear indication of where they are failing or
what rules have been broken and, except in cases of gross misconduct, they should be
given a chance to improve before disciplinary action is taken.

 Provide to the greatest extent possible stable job security.

 Design a safe work system to ensure a safe and healthy working environment, minimizes
the hazard and risks and subsequently stress.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

To end this, the commitment to values and ethical principles among managers, staff, and
team uphold trust, respect, care, right, fairness, and democracy (Dai and Sun, 2001). Yang
(1999) pointed out that the components of enterprise ethics include moral values of
management, respect for employees, democratic managers, coordination of efficiency and
fairness, clean government.

C. THE IMPORTANCE OF HRM IN NGO: OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

i. THE IMPORTANCE OF HRM IN NGOS

The Human Resource Management “HRM” in a non-governmental organization “NGOs” is

not different to HR in any other firm, but the problems that HR manager faces within the
NGO industry are quite unique.

There are three different dimensions of the importance of HRM in NGOs. To begin with,
the personnel services is out of the context of taking the employees for physical capital.
The employees of profit organizations are usually considered as physical capital; while
NGOs see them as the most important values of the organization and consider them the
backbone of the organization.

In addition, the employees of NGOs are affected by intrinsic values and they are motivated
by these values. The missions of organizations, the democratic nature of organizational
culture, and the significance to individuals can be counted as intrinsic values. Furthermore,
employees are the most critical stakeholders regarding the strategic plans of NGOs. As it
can be inferred from these three dimensions, the human factor underlies the sustainability
of NGOs. For this reason, human resources management is considered the primary
element in such organizations.

As a part of that, HRM for NGOs ensures sustainable growth. It is the essential strength
upon which employees’ strategies, processes and operations are based.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

It basically aims to:

• Understand and assess organizational behavior and functioning.

• Manage organizations through planning.

• Implementing and monitoring activities strategically.

• Improve the performance of the staff.

• Build effective management systems, policies and plans and also develop long-term
sustainability.

HRM plays a significant role in enhancing the performance of employees in the

organization. Also, HRM has to make strategic management to seek, attract, develop and
retain qualified and enthusiastic employees as they are the keys to success.

Additionally, the employees that working at an NGO are motivated in various way than
those at for‐profit organizations. The latter are motivated via financial remuneration while
the former prefer to be rewarded with individual ones that can contribute to their
personal development. Strategic HRM focuses on HR base at a low level and they
approach to strategic orientation with a higher level. The strategic objectives of NGO are
revealed through their missions and values. Strategic HRM is relying on developing those
goals, which might, however, have a negative influence on the employees.

HRM, which is driven by value, focuses on both strategic orientation and human resource
base at an equally high level. HRM that driven by value invests in the advancing of the
skills of the employees and it uses the power of its mission to impress and motivate the
employees.

Ultimately, HRM is the process of linking coherent human resource functions with the
strategic objectives of the organization to obtain it. We may call in the way that human
resource management is the backbone of each organization because they need it for
activity HR system to achieve the balance inside it.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

Huge number of the NGOs doesn’t reach development because they don’t adopt an
efficient HR system structure and neglect it. They thought it’s a waste of time; and
therefore they will lose the opportunity to be in the top of the NGOs. For instance, WFP,
IOM, Mercy corps, UNAID, OXFAM…. etc. All these international NGOs have an efficient HR
system that makes them always the top list successful NGOs.

ii. THE OBJECTIVES & GOALS OF HRM

According to Ulrich and Lake (1990) remarked that: “HRM systems can be the source of
organizational capabilities that allow organizations to learn and capitalize on new
opportunities”. We can conclude that HRM has an ethical dimension which means that it
must also be concerned with the rights and needs of people in organizations through the
exercise of social responsibility.

Additionally, Armstrong and Taylor (2015) identify the goals of HRM as to:

• Support the organization in achieving its objectives by developing and implementing HR

strategies that are integrated with business strategy.

• Contribute to the development of a high-performance culture.

• Ensure that the organization has the talented, skilled and engaged people it needs

• Create a positive employment relationship between management and employees and a

climate of mutual trust.

• Encourage the application of an ethical approach to people management.

3. BENEFITS OF CREATION HUMAN RESOURCES UNIT

Each NGO needs to set up their own HR Unit in order to:

A. Maintain a healthy working environment

Creating a workplace where employees feel comfortable, supported, and motivated. It’s
crucial to the success of the organization, but it takes time and expertise. An HR unit
creates policies and procedures which create a fair workplace.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

They also resolve conflict and listen to employees’ issues to ensure they feel not
neglecting. This all contributes to the smooth running of the organization's work and helps
employees feel empowered to do their best work.

B. Stay compliant
Complying with regulations is essential to ensure a successful work-line. An HR
professional will be responsible for regulatory issues so the employees can avoid
penalties. HR unit can keep on top of ever-changing regulations and ensure they have all
necessary information and signatures from the staff.

C. Attract and retain top talent

Recruitment, onboarding, talent management, performance management, learning and
development, are all business functions handled by the HR department. They are crucial
to create a workforce that will drive business performance to the top.

4. HUMAN RESOURCES PRACTICES

In many organizations, HR is a challenge by the multiple roles it is required to fulfil–

administrator, strategic partner, challenger, champion of good people management,
guardian of organization values, the conscience of the organization and governor.
Achieving the right balance is relying on HR, investing in its capacity and actively listening
to the needs and concerns of managers and staff.
Furthermore, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development commissioned
research (Purcell et al, 2003) to identify which HR orientations appear to contribute most
to improved productivity.
The six key work HR orientations identified are:
• Career development and opportunities for advancement
• Training opportunities
• Job influence and challenge
• Involvement and communication
• Performance management and appraisal processes
• Work-life balance.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

As a part of that, HRM operations are involved in many practices. The following practices,
which are implemented to boost the effectiveness of the organizational environment, are
considered essential: recruitment and selection, training and development, flexible
reward, employee involvement, and Work conditions in order to clarify how the process of
the HR unit in the development of the organization by selecting the best candidates.
• The purpose of the recruitment in an organization is to find potentially qualified job
seeker, who will be able to perform job duties. On the other hand, selection is the
process of selecting the most appropriate applicant from the group of recruited
applicants to complete the job concerned (Opatha, 2010).
• Training and development: Training is seen as a systematic approach to learning and
development that improves the individual, group and organization (Goldstein & Ford,
2002; Jahanzeb & Bashir 2013). Training also has effect on the return on investment
since the organizational performance depends on employee performance because
human resource capital of organization plays an important role in the growth and
development of such organization (Keny & Nnamdi, 2019).
• Flexible reward: The reward system purpose is to pull talented candidates, to get them
to be more effective at work, to motivate and keep those that have a superior fit with
the enterprise. As mention by Rotea, Logofatu, and Ploscaru (2018) individual and
collective reward and productivity of employees are the central drivers of the activity in
any type of organization. Danish and Usman (2010) stated that the reward system
serves as a factor in maintaining self-esteem and the passion of employees. Therefore,
every organization should take care at the offering of remunerations in manner to
control the level of employee self-satisfaction in sustaining the performance.
• Employee involvement: It is argued that participatory decision making is a vital element
to improve the work satisfaction of an organization (Kim, 2002; Han, H. H. Chiang, & A.
Chang, 2010). Employees believe that they have a value in their organization because
of their involvement. Likewise, a study by Meyer, Becker, and Vandenberghe (2004)
found that inclusion in goals increases employee motivation.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

• Work conditions: Working conditions are created by employee interaction with their
organizational climate and include psychological and physical working conditions
(Gerber et al., 1998). Noble (2009) emphasizes that more attention needs to be paid to
the identification and treatment of working conditions, because when an employee has
a negative feeling toward the work that will influence on the organization's
performance

Recruitment and selection

Training and development

HRM PRACTICES Flexible reward ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Employee involvement

Work condition

Figure 2 : Human Resources management practices and impact on organizations

Ultimately, there isn’t one best practice model of HR. The function within each
organization needs to build its approach based on a deep and evidence-based
understanding of the mission and the culture of their organization.

5. STRATEGIC HRM:

Integration and alignment are fundamental characteristics of Strategic HRM. In

organizations practicing SHRM, people strategies are informed by business strategy. In
addition, HR policies should be integrated or consistent with each other. For example, if
the organization structure is based on team-based working, as is frequently the case in the
third sector, individual pay for performance would not represent a good horizontal fit.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

The further objective of Strategic HRM is to provide a sense of direction. Consistent with
its origins in strategic management, planning is central to SHRM. Management identifies a
range of employee-related priorities and objectives which will contribute towards the
achievement of the objectives of the organization. An action plan is also required, which is
considered how it is proposed the objectives will be met.

Armstrong suggests that SHRM can best be understood as “a mindset, underpinned by

certain concepts rather than a set of techniques”, while the CIPD (2016) comment that
“strategic human resource management is a complex process that is constantly evolving
and the source of ongoing discussion by academics and commentators”.
However, among organizations who have adopted SHRM it is possible to identify a
number of key characteristics (adapted from Reilly, 2012):
• There is an organizationally shared philosophy underpinning people management
(sometimes described as a ‘big idea’, for example ‘alleviating world poverty’ for a third
world agency or ‘serving the customer’ for a retail organization.
• There is a focus on business-critical issues and outcomes.
• People and their skills, knowledge and experience are seen a competitive resource.
• There is a planned approach to resources (not just numbers but also skills and
potential).
• Consideration is given to long-term and not just short-term value in the organization;
• The full range of people management activities are brought together in an integrated
manner.
• The approach anticipates and supports change through scanning the internal and
external environment.
• There is an awareness of the importance of social and intellectual capital in the
organization and an emphasis on activities such as knowledge sharing, networking and
relationship building.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOMEPENT OF NGOs

6. CONCLUSION
In recent decades, HRM shows great importance within the environment of a non-
government organization (NGO). This report sets out the linkage between the HRM and
outcomes on organizational performance. Consequently, efficient and effective
management of NGOs and their Human resources is becoming increasingly relevant for
growth and make several important contributions. We represent a comprehensive outlook
on the interrelated HR practices. These practices represent fruitful tools and have shown
practical and tangible benefits concerning ethical foundations, which inculcate the traits of
morality.

This helps to create a positive environment and is indispensable in the achievement of

desired goals and objectives and maintains the well-being of the human resources.

Finally, organizations gain advantages from drawing a high strategic HR orientation.

Managing their knowledge and capacities, aid in formulating strategies that could have
detrimental effects on the motivation, satisfaction, and commitment of the employees.

Human resource managers need to focus their thinking about strategic orientations and
draw HR programs and HR practices by putting into consideration situational factors such
as the goals and stakeholder demands of the organization. They should balance
management more towards the human capital which needs to be procured and developed
and be motivated to achieve advantages.

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 THE ROLE Of HUMAN RESOURCE
THE PRACTICE
MANAGEMENT
OF HUMAN
IN RESOURCE
DEVELOMEPENT
MANAGEMENT
OF NGOs

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