2.

0 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

A description of people management activities in organizations. They

include resourcing, learning and development, performance and reward
management, employee relations and administration.

The 5-P model of HRM

As formulated by Schuler (1992) the 5-P model of HRM describes how
HRM operates under the five headings of:
1. HR philosophy – a statement of how the organization regards its
human resources, the role they play in the overall success of the
business, and how they should be treated and managed.
2. HR policies – these provide guidelines for action on people-
related business issues and for the development of HR
programmes and practices based on strategic needs.
3. HR programmes – these are shaped by HR policies and consist of
coordinated HR efforts intended to initiate and manage
organizational change efforts prompted by strategic business
needs.
4. HR practices – these are the activities carried out in
implementing HR policies and programmes. They include
resourcing, learning and development, performance and reward
management, employee relations and administration.
5. HR processes – these are the formal procedures and methods
used to put HR strategic plans and policies into effect.

Human Resource Management Activities

HR activities are modelled in various dimensions; Purcell and Ahlstrand

(1994) model came up with nine (9) core activities that HRM
departments should engage in. They argued that these activities should
be applicable to most medium and large organizations depending on the
nature of their operations. Mathis & Jackson (2006) model regarding
the role of HR department is composed of seven (7) activities, with
respect to external forces such as legal, economic, cultural, political,
technological, global, environmental, and social; and how they interact
with HR activities. The HR activities model according to Adeniji and
Osibanjo (201@) are grouped into four (4):

1. Overview of HRM

 Introduction to HRM

2. Employment of Human Resources

Human Resource Planning (HRP) plays a vital role in securing

organization competitive advantage.

i. By ensuring right people with necessary and adequate skills are

rightly placed at the right time.
ii. Retaining employees through strategic policies such as career
path planning, pay and benefits; also engaging in operational
strategies, like re-training, re-deployment or relocation in order
to make sure employees move in the right perspective by putting
in place standards, good reward systems and employee-employer
relationships.
iii. By studying the functions of employees, job analysis tends to
gather information on each job and subsequently organize and
compile in a job description, which would be used during recruiting
qualified job candidates from which selection can be made to
occupy the vacancies.

HR Activities associated with employment of Human Resources are:

  Human Resource Planning
 Job Analysis & Design
 Staffing Process
 Retention
 Socialization

3. Employee Relations

Employee Relations entails the relationship between employees and

management, which stem directly or indirectly from union-employer
relationship. However, there is need to manage this relationship
effectively in order to achieve organizational goals and employees’
goals. Employees should not be denied of their rights, it is therefore
essential to develop strategies and communicate with both the
managers and employees terms of reference.

HR Activities associated with employee relations are:

i. Grievance Handling;
ii. Disciplinary Action;
iii. Trade Unions;
iv. Industrial Relations;
v. Collective Bargaining and Workers’ Participation in Management;

4. Management & Development of Human Resources

HR Activities associated with Management and Development of Human

Resources are:

i. Managing Careers
ii. Performance Appraisal & Management
iii. Employee Training & Management Development
iv. Compensation Management
v. Occupational Safety & Health

HR AND PERFORMANCE
An ongoing challenge for the HR profession has been the need to prove
that good HR practice contributes to better organization performance.
This is necessary to prove that HR rather than representing a cost to
the organization ‘adds value’. Thinking in this regard is based on the
premise that good HR practices enhance the motivation and
commitment of staff which in turn impacts positively on productivity
and performance.

As Ulrich (1997:304) commented ‘HR practices seem to matter;

intuition says it is so; survey findings confirm it. However direct
relationships between performance and attention to HR practices are
often fuzzy’. Guest (2011:11) is even more blunt: ‘After hundreds of
research studies we are still in no position to assert with any
confidence that good HRM has an impact on organization performance’.
So while research can show an empirical association between HR
practices and organization performance, it is difficult to know what
factors or practices are particularly important and what HR outcomes
are leading to the better organization performance. In order to unlock
what is sometimes referred to as ‘the black box phenomenon’, the CIPD
commissioned major quantitative research across UK companies (Purcell
et al, 2003).

The findings identified six key work practices that jointly applied were
shown to improve performance. The research emphasizes particularly
that pay was not regarded as a primary motivating factor in any of the
organization in the study, all of which were trying to be progressive in
respect of HR.
The six key work practices that are jointly applied to improve
performance are:

1. Career development and opportunities for advancement

Career progression and development are essential motivation and
retention tools.
However, career progression does not have to include promotion.
Employees value greater autonomy, varied work, and opportunities to
acquire new skills. Two considerations for organizations are the
importance of development opportunities for all staff, even those that
remain at the same level and the need to develop an appropriate and
honest message in respect of development opportunities.
2. Training opportunities
Training is the use of systematic and planned instruction and
development activities to promote learning. Training opportunities
enhance staff commitment and, if based on an objective assessment of
need, result in a more efficient and effective organization. ‘On the job’
coaching or ‘stretch’ assignments are frequently more useful to staff
compared to formal training.

3. Job influence and challenge

Job design is an area that deeply influences people’s experience of
work. Where people have some influence over how they do their job,
and where they find their job demanding and challenging, they are
much more likely to have job satisfaction. Techniques that support
good job design include, job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment
and self-managed teams.
4. Involvement and communication
The opportunity to contribute to decisions and have a sense of
involvement is valued by most employees. Much of the knowledge
required by organizations to be more productive is in employees’ heads,
so accessing it makes good business sense.
Where managers encourage involvement it is associated with higher
levels of satisfaction with management in organizations. Effective
communication is a further vital part of the process. The good
intentions of leaders can be ruined and mutual trust damaged by
managers who do not pass on messages, who distort the message they
are entrusted with, or who do not feed-back what they have been told
by staff. A range of mechanisms are used by organizations to promote
involvement and participation by staff, for example employee opinion
surveys, suggestions schemes, town hall meetings, partnership
committees and works councils.

5. Performance management and appraisal processes

In employee opinion surveys, tolerance for underperformance
frequently emerges as a major source of dissatisfaction among
employees. However, in order to be able to identify under-
performance, organizations need to clarify for both managers and
staff what constitutes an acceptable level of performance. In addition,
performance reviews should focus far more on performance planning
and improvement than on retrospective appraisal. A further important
finding of the research by Purcell and his colleagues is the importance
of implementing HR policies effectively. The authors note that
employees experience more negative attitudes towards poorly applied
HR policies than they do over the absence of a particular practice,
even those that might be regarded as essential, for example
performance appraisal.

6. Work-life balance
Work-life balance emerges as an important area influencing employee
attitudes towards their employer. It is important to consider work-life
balance for all employees not just those with young children and the
type of flexibility that people want. It is often not so much reduced
hours that employees indicate they would benefit from but the
possibility of varying hours at short notice to deal with whatever
pressures they have outside of work. However, consistent with other
research, the research by Purcell and his colleagues found that good
HR practices are not enough. What makes a bigger difference is ‘the
way people work together to be productive and flexible enough to meet
new challenges’ (Purcell et al, 2003: 32). This is facilitated by two key
ingredients – organization culture and the attitudes of line managers.
Meaningful and easily understood organization values help to unite an
organization around a shared mission, while the way in which managers
implement policies and exercise leadership is positively related to
positive employee attitudes in respect of the range of issues that
support increased motivation and productivity. As the authors conclude
(Purcell et al, 2003: 33): Their managerial behaviour - in implementing
HR policies, in showing leadership by involving staff and responding to
their suggestions, and in controlling quality, timekeeping and absence –
makes a real difference to employees’ attitudes. It’s not something
that can be legislated for because it’s a behaviour rather than a duty.
It’s strongly linked to the way that the line managers are themselves
managed and to the wider values and culture of the organization.

Essentially, HR practitioners have limited impact on resources such as

capital & materials; but have greater impact on the labour component.
They can influence the employees’ commitment, raise their morale and
motivate them. Emphasis has been placed on pay or reward systems in
order to achieve high level performance outcomes. Organizations
therefore, engage in some practices such as bonus schemes for
employees in the production unit, performance related pay for
managers and administrative staff, incentive systems for sales and
service employees, etc. Further, employees’ commitment is therefore
encouraged by aligning reward system with organizational performance,
which could be in form of profit sharing employee stock options,
payment of 13th month pay or gain sharing. It is therefore important
to state that HR managers have unique opportunity to increase
productivity, which has direct link with organizational performance.
Strategy and HRM

The primary goal of every organization is to remain and relevant in

business. To achieve this goal, organizations should be effective and
efficient in their operations within the limitations of their resources.
Therefore, management think of strategy, which is referred to as a
set of coordinated and monitored choices and actions within the
framework of the organizations. A strategy is regarded to be more
than decisions, also is putting choices into practice. However, regarding
HR management in organizations, there are two basic types of
strategy. (i) competitive business strategy, which involves choice
making and how to serve their customers better; and (ii) human
resource strategy that involve choice making regarding the
management of people within the organization. Further, there is need
to harmonize the two strategies in order to ensure high organizational
performance as significant attention has been given to HR becoming a
strategic partner. This concept has led to the formation of Strategic
Human Resource Management (SHRM), which is an integration of the
strategic management and human resource management. SHRM points
to the contribution of HRM to the performance of organizations,
evidently, organizations adopting a particular strategy require HR
practices that may differ from those required by organizations
adopting alternative strategies (Delery and Doty, 1996), meaning that
there is an important link between organizational strategy and HR
practices that are implemented in that organization.

STRATEGIC HRM
One of the key characteristics of HRM is that it is strategic, that is
that HR policies and practices are informed by the overall objectives
of the organization. SHRM has been described by Boxall (1996) as the
interface between HRM and strategic management. In other words, it
describes how the future development of the organization and the
achievement of its objectives can be supported by its HR policies and
practices. Having a skilled, capable and motivated workforce is
perceived as fundamental to competitive advantage and SHRM is
oriented towards recruiting, supporting and developing high quality
employees. Integration and alignment are fundamental characteristics
of SHRM. In organizations practicing SHRM, people strategies are
informed by business strategy (described in the HR literature as
‘vertical fit’). In addition, HR policies should be integrated or
consistent with each other (‘horizontal fit’ or sometimes described as
‘bundling’ HR practices). The further objective of SHRM is to provide a
sense of direction. Consistent with its origins in strategic management,
planning is central to SHRM. Management identify 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, that is, the means by which it is proposed the objectives
will be met.

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 (e.g. 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.

THE HR FUNCTION

The basic objective of HR function is to provide the advice and

services that support organizations and their managers to get things
done through people. Armstrong and Taylor (2015:42) notes that ‘the
role of HR professionals varies widely according to the extent to which
they are generalist (e.g. HR director, HR manager, HR officer) or
specialist (e.g. head of learning and development, head of talent
management, head of reward), the level at which they work (strategic,
executive or administrative), the needs of the organization, the view of
senior management about their contribution, the context within which
they work and their own capabilities’. HR management is not a single
homogenous occupation, rather, it involves a variety of roles and
activities that differ from one organization to another or even at
different levels within the same organization.
The other very prominent development in how HR is delivered over
recent decades is the involvement of line managers in the delivery of
HR. According to Purcell et al (2003) good HR practice is not only
about having a range of best-practice policies in place. What makes the
difference is how these policies and practices are implemented by line
managers. The research of Purcell and his colleagues in particular
emphasizes the contribution to improved organization performance of
line managers in ‘bringing HR policies to life’.

People centred aspects of a manager’s role such as defining roles,

interviewing, reviewing performance, providing feedback, coaching,
identifying learning and development needs and conducting
performance reviews all require special skills. Some managers by nature
are better at this type of activity than others, but all benefit from
guidance and support. In particular, organization’s need to recognize
people management duties as part of a manager’s role and give them
the time required to do it.
Armstrong and Taylor (2015:49) suggests a number of ways in which
organization’s can achieve ‘better implementation and better ownership
by line managers of HR practices’:
• Identify how input in the area of people management demonstrably
benefits them
• Involve them in the development and the testing of the practices
• Ensure practices are not too complicated, bureaucratic or time-
consuming
• Ensure their responsibilities are defined and communicated clearly
• Provide them with the guidance, support and training required to
implement the practice.

The goals of HRM:

Drawing on the original theory, 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.

HR AND ETHICS
Ethics can be said to be standards of right and wrong that prescribe
what humans ought to do such as obligations, fairness, honesty,
compassion and loyalty, which are said to be supported by consistent
and strong reasons. HR practitioners play major role in keeping,
disseminating and enforcing organizational ethics. These guidelines
relate to how employees are treated in general and to the major HRM
activities of organization development, recruitment and selection,
learning and development, performance management, reward
management and employee relations.

They also relate to employment practices concerning the work

environment, employee wellbeing, equal opportunities, managing
diversity, handling disciplinary matters and grievances, job security and
redundancy.

General guidelines
 Recognize that the strategic goals of the organization should
embrace the rights and needs of employees as well as those of
the business.
 Recognize that employees are entitled to be treated as full
human beings with personal needs, hopes and anxieties.
 Do not treat employees simply as means to an end or mere
factors of production.
 Relate to employees generally in ways that recognize their natural
rights to be treated justly, equitably and with respect.

HR SYSTEMS AND STRATEGIES

The HR system consists of strategies, policies and procedures. Many
organizations have multiple discrete HR practices (e.g. employee well-
being, employee development, pay and reward etc.) with no explicit or
discernible links between them.
The HR system contains the interrelated and jointly supportive HR
activities and practices which together enable HRM goals to be
achieved.

HR system incorporates:
● HR strategies, which define the direction in which HRM intends to
take each of its main areas of activity.
● HR policies, which set out what HRM is there to do and provide
guidelines defining how specific aspects of HR should be applied and
implemented.
● HR practices, which consist of the HRM activities involved in
managing and developing people and in managing the employment
relationship.

HR strategies indicate what the organization wants to do about its

human resource management policies and practices and how they should
be integrated with the business strategy and each other. They set out
aspirations that are expressed as intentions, which are then converted
into actions. As suggested by Chesters (2011: 32), they should be
regarded as a statement of the organization’s collective endeavour.
They are not just a laundry list of everything that the organization
would like to do.
When organizations seek to improve their people management
arrangements they will typically consider developing a HR Strategy. A
HR strategy sets out what the organization wants to do about its
human resource management policies and how delivering on these will
help to achieve the overall objectives of the organization.

General HR strategies
General strategies describe the overall system or bundle of
complementary HR practices that the organization proposes to adopt
or puts into effect in order to improve organizational performance.
The three main approaches are summarized below.

High-performance management
High-performance management aims, through high performance work
systems (practices that enhance employee performance and facilitate
their engagement, motivation and skill enhancement), to make an impact
on the performance of the organization in such areas as productivity,
quality, levels of customer service, growth and profits. High
performance working practices include rigorous recruitment and
selection procedures, extensive and relevant training and management
development activities, incentive pay systems and performance
management processes.

High-commitment management
One of the defining characteristics of HRM is its emphasis on the
importance of enhancing mutual commitment (Walton, 1985). High-
commitment management has been described by Wood (1996) as: ‘A
form of management which is aimed at eliciting a commitment so that
behaviour is primarily self-regulated rather than controlled by
sanctions and pressures external to the individual, and relations within
the organization are based on high levels of trust.’

High-involvement management
As defined by Benson et al (2006: 519): ‘High involvement work
practices are a specific set of human resource practices that focus on
employee decision-making, power, access to information, training and
incentives.’ Camps and Luna-Arocas (2009: 1057) observed that: ‘High-
involvement work practices aim to provide employees with the
opportunity, skills and motivation to contribute to organizational
success in environments demanding greater levels of commitment and
involvement.’ The term ‘high-involvement’ was used by Lawler (1986) to
describe management systems based on commitment and involvement,
as opposed to the old bureaucratic model based on control.

Specific HR strategies
Specific HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do in
areas such as:
 Human capital management – obtaining, analyzing and reporting on
data that informs the direction of value-adding, people
management, strategic, investment and operational decisions.
 Knowledge management – creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing
and using knowledge to enhance learning and performance.
 Corporate social responsibility – a commitment to managing the
business ethically in order to make a positive impact on society
and the environment.
 Engagement – the development and implementation of policies
designed to increase the level of employees’ engagement with
their work and the organization.
 Organization development – the planning and implementation of
programmes designed to enhance the effectiveness with which an
organization functions and responds to change.
 Resourcing – attracting and retaining high-quality people. ● Talent
management – how the organization ensures that it has the
talented people it needs to achieve success.
 Learning and development – providing an environment in which
employees are encouraged to learn and develop.
 Reward – defining what the organization wants to do in the longer
term to develop and implement reward policies, practices and
processes that will further the achievement of its business goals
and meet the needs of its stakeholders
 Employee relations – defining the intentions of the organization
about what needs to be done and what needs to be changed in the
ways in which the organization manages its relationships with
employees and their trade unions.
  Employee well-being – meeting the needs of employees for a
healthy, safe and supportive work environment.

2.1 COMPETENCY BASED HRM

Competency – based HRM is about the notion of competency and the

results of competency analysis to inform and improve the processes of
performance management, recruitment and selection, employee
development and employee reward. It therefore has an important part
to play in all major HR activities.

Competency is defined by Rankin (2004) as representing the language

of performance. It can articulate both the expected outcomes from an
individual’s efforts and the manner in which these activities are
carried out. Because everyone in an organization can learn to speak this
language, competencies provide a common, universally understood
means of describing expected performance in many different contexts.

Competency is defined by Boyatzis (1982) as a capacity that exists in a

person that leads to behavior that meets the job demands within
parameters of the organizational environment and that in turn bring
about desired results.

2.2 TYPES OF COMPETENCIES

i. Behavioural Competencies - They define behavioral expectations i.e
the type of behavior required to deliver results under such headings as
team working, communication, leadership and decision making. They are
sometimes called ‘soft skills’. Behavioral competencies are usually set
out in a competency framework.
This approach was first advocated by McClelland (1973).He
recommended the use of criterion – referenced assessment. Criterion
referencing or validation is the process of analyzing the key aspects of
behavior that differentiate between effective and less effective
performance.
The leading figure in defining and popularizing the concept of
competency was Boyatzis (1982).He conducted research that
established that there was no single factor but a range of factors that
differentiated successful from less successful performance. These
factors included;
 Personal qualities
 Motives
 Experience
 Behavioral characteristics
The clusters of competencies he identified were goal and action
management, directing subordinates, human resource management and
leadership. He made a distinction between threshold competencies,
which are the basic competencies required to do a job and performance
competencies, which differentiate between high and low performance.

ii. Technical Competencies

They define what people have to know and be able to do (knowledge and
skills) to carry out their roles effectively. They are related to either
generic roles (groups of similar roles),or to individual roles (role
specific competencies).The term technical competency has been
adopted fairly recently to avoid the confusion that existed between
the term ‘competency’ and ‘competence’. Competency is about
behaviours while competence refers to the areas of work which a
person is competent(sometimes referred to as hard skills.

iii. NVQ/SNVQ Competencies

The concept of competence was conceived in the UK as a fundamental
part of the process of developing standards for NVQ/SNVQs. These
specify minimum standards for the achievement of set tasks and
activities expressed in ways which can be observed and assessed with a
view to certification. An element of competence in NVQ language is a
description of something that people in given work areas should be able
to do. They are assessed on being competent or not yet competent. No
attempt is made to assess the degree of competence.

2.2 APPLICATION OF COMPETENCY-BASED HRM

The Competency and Emotional Intelligence 2006/7 survey found that
95% of respondents used behavioral competencies and 66% used
technical competencies. It was noted that the latter deal with specific
activities for groups of related roles, functions and activities. The top
four areas where the competencies applied were;
 Learning and development 82%
 Performance management 76%
 Selection 85%
 Recruitment 55%

2.3 CONTENTS OF COMPETENCY FRAMEWORKS

The most popular headings include;
 Team orientation
 Communication
 People management
 Customer focus
 Results orientation
 Problem solving
 Planning and organizing
 Technical skills
 Leadership

2.4 DEVELOPING COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK

 Decide on the purpose of the framework and the HR
process for which it will be used
 Make out a business case for its development, setting out
the benefit
  Prepare a project plan that includes an assessment of the
resources required and the costs. Involve line managers and
employees in the design of the framework
 Communicate the objectives of the exercise to staff
 Draw up a list of the core competencies of the business
 Define the competencies for inclusion in a competency
framework
 Test and finalize and communicate the framework
2.5 KEYS TO SUCCESS IN USING COMPETENCIES
 Frameworks should not be over complex
 There should not be too many headings in a framework – seven to
eight will often suffice
 The language used should be clear and jargon – free
 Competencies must be selected and defined in ways that ensure
that they can be assessed by managers – the use of ‘behavioral
indicators’ is helpful
 Frameworks should be regularly updated

2.6 COMPETENCIES AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The EI elements of;
 Self awareness
 Emotional management
 Empathy
 Relationships
 Communication
 Personal style
Correspond to competencies such as;
 Sensitivity
 Flexibility
 Adaptability
 Resilience
 Impact
 Listening
  Leadership
 Persuasiveness
 Motivating others
 Energy
 Decisiveness achievement motivation

HRM & Challenges

HR activities in organizations are facing some challenges in practice,
such as
 occupational shifts;
 quality of available workforce;
 growth in casual workers;
 technological shifts;
 gender diversity;
 racial/ethnic diversity;
 age limit;
 globalization and organizational restructuring.

However, challenges facing HRM are seen from two perspectives;

internal and external and could be classified into three:
(i) Organizational challenges these are internal in nature and
often results from environmental forces that are external
by nature. Some of the issues emanating from the
organizations include organizational restructuring,
organizational culture, outsourcing, downsizing and
decentralization;
(ii) Environmental challenges they are issues emanating from
the external context where the company operates, which
has great influence on performances of organizations. These
include; legislation, globalization, labour demand and supply,
and work diversity; and
(iii) Individual challenges are the issues regarding employees,
how they are being treated, matching individuals with
organizations, employee development, insecurity, and reward
systems, which affects organizational performance.