CHAPTER 1: THE WORLD OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

● The way an organization acquires, treats, develops, and rewards people who work for it is
arguably the most important source of its competitive advantage.
o Competitors cannot mimic or copy great people.
o “Without our people, we are nothing”
● Human Resource Management (HRM) – the process of managing human talent to achieve an
organization’s objectives.
o Planning, recruitment, staffing, job design, training/ development, appraisal,
communications, compensation, benefits, labor relations
● Human Capital – the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of individuals that have economic value
to an organization
o Human capital is intangible and cannot be managed the way organizations manage jobs,
products and technologies
▪ Employees own their own human capital.
▪ Valuable because: (1) based on company-specific skills, (2) gained through
long-term experience, and (3) can be expanded through development

ISSUE 1: RESPONDING STRATEGICALLY TO CHANGES IN THE LOCAL AND GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

● Six sigma– a set of principles and practices whose core ideas include
understanding customer needs, doing things right the first time, and striving for continuous
improvement.
● Reengineering – the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to
achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed.
o Requires that managers create an environment or change
o Depends on effective leadership and communication processes
o Requires that administrative systems be reviewed and modified
● Downsizing - the planned elimination of jobs; layoffs
● Outsourcing – hiring someone outside the company to perform business processes that were
previously done within the firm
● Change management – is a systemic way of bringing about and managing both organizational
changes and changes on the individual level
● Reactive changes – result when external forces (competition, recession, law change) have
already affected the organization’s performance
● Proactive changes – initiated by manages to take advantage of targeted opportunities,
particularly in fast changing industries in which followers are not successful.
● Globalization – the trend to opening up foreign markets to international trade and investment

ISSUE 2: SETTING AND ACHIEVING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY NAD SUSTAINABILITY GOALS

● Corporate social responsibility – the responsibility of the firm to act in the best interests of the
people and communities affected by its activities
● Sustainability – a company’s ability to produce a good or service without damaging the
environment or depleting a resource

ISSUE 3: ADVANCING HRM WITH TECHNOLOGY

 ● Collaborative software – allows workers to interface and share information with one another
electronically (e.g. google docs, video conferencing, online chats)
● From touch labors to knowledge workers
o Knowledge workers – workers whose responsibilities extend beyond the physical
execution of work to include planning, decision making and problem solving
● Human Resource Information System (HRIS) – a computerized system that provides current and
accurate data for purposes of control and decision making
o It has become a potent weapon for lowering administrative costs, increasing
productivity, speeding up response times, improving decision making, and tracking a
company’s talent.
o Impacts of HRIS:
▪ Operational – automating routine activities, alleviating administrative burdens,
reducing costs, and improving productivity internal to the HR Function itself.
▪ Relational – connecting people with each other and with HR data they need
▪ Transformational – changing the way HR processes are designed and executed

ISSUE 4: CONTAINIG COSTS WHILE RETAINING TOP TALENT AND MAXIMIZING PRODUCTIVITY

● Organizations take many approaches to lowering labor-related costs, including…

o Carefully managing employees’ benefits – the benefits of the employees should be
directly proportional with the performance of the employee or the motivation of the
employee to perform well; whether the organization can afford the benefits offered to
the employees.
o Downsizing - the planned elimination of jobs; layoffs
o Furloughing employees – a situation in which an organization asks or requires employees
to take time off for either no pay or reduced pay
▪ An alternative of downsizing and avoid losing talent to competitors
o Outsourcing – hiring someone outside the company to perform business processes that
were previously done within the firm
o Offshoring – referred to as global sourcing; the business practice of sending jobs to other
countries
o Nearshoring – the process of moving jobs closer to one’s home country
o Employee leasing – the process of dismissing employees who are then hired by a leasing
company (which handles all HR-related activities) and contracting with the company to
lease back the employees.

ISSUE 5: RESPONDING TO THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND DIVERSITY CHALLENGES OF THE WORKFORCE

● Demographic changes
● Age distribution of the employees
● Gender distribution of the workforce
● Managing diversity
o Being aware of the characteristics common to employees, while also managing
employees as individuals.

ISSUE 6: ADAPTING TO EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SHIFTS AFFECTING THE WORKFORCE

● Education of the workforce – mostly, the higher the education the higher the salary
 ● Cultural changes – culture of employees affect their behavior on the job and the environment
within the organization, influencing their reactions to work assignments, leadership styles, and
reward systems
● Employee rights
● Concern for privacy
o Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) – federal law
that deals with the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information
● Changing Nature of the Job
● Changing Attitudes toward work
● Balancing work and family =

THE PARTNERSHIP FO LINE AMNAGERS AND HR DEPARTMENTS

● Successful organizations combine the experience of the line managers with the expertise of HR
managers to develop and utilize the talents of employees to their greatest potential.
o Line managers – non-HR managers who are responsible for overseeing the work of other
employees
● Just as there are different types of line managers who specialize in different functions –
operations, accounting, marketing, and so forth – there are difficult types of human resources
managers specialize in different HR functions
● Responsibilities of HR managers
o Advice and counsel – HR managers serve as an in-house consultant to supervisors,
managers, and executives.
o Service – HR managers perform a hose of services such as:
▪ Recruiting
▪ Selecting
▪ Testing
▪ Planning
▪ Conducting training programs
▪ Hearing employee concerns and complaints
o Policy formulation and implementation – HR managers generally propose and draft new
policy or policy revisions to address recurring problems or to prevent anticipated
problems
o Employee advocacy – HR managers serve as an employee advocate
▪ listening to employee’s concerns and representing their needs to managers
▪ ensure that the interests of employees and the interests of the organization are
aligned with one another
● competencies of the HR manager
o Business mastery – HR professionals need to know the business of their organization
thoroughly
▪ Business acumen
▪ Customer orientation
▪ External relations
o HR mastery – HR professionals are the organization’s behavioral science experts
▪ Staffing
▪ Performance appraisal
 ▪ Reward systems
▪ Communication
▪ Organizational design
o Change mastery – HR professionals must be able to manage change processes so that
their firms’ HR activities are effectively merged with the business needs of the
organizations
▪ Interpersonal skills and influence
▪ Problem-solving skills
▪ Reward system
▪ Innovativeness and creativity
o Personal credibility – HR professionals must establish personal credibility in the eyes of
their internal and external customers
▪ Trust
▪ Personal relationships
▪ Lived values
▪ courage