Chapter 3
The Changing Role of HRM:
Achieving Impact through Adding
Value
Objectives of Chapter
• To outline the challenges and opportunities
facing HR as a specialist function
• To critically assess influences affecting HR’s
strategic contribution
• To highlight the role of HR outside strategic
integration
• To critically analyse the knowledge and skills
required by HR specialists in a global economy
HR as a Specialist Function
• The constant worry of all personnel administrators is
their inability to prove that they are making a
contribution to the enterprise. Their preoccupation is
with the search for a ‘gimmick’ that will impress their
management associates. Their persistent complaint
is that they lack status. Drucker, 1954
• It's an exciting time for people management and
development professionals. We're making evergreater contributions to our organisations, our
people and to economic performance. And we have
the evidence that what we do makes the winning
difference. Armstong, 2007
• …. which one is right?
• Is there now more
recognition for the HR
function than before?
The Context….
• Change provides the backdrop for business activity
today
• HR practices are linked with many measures of
business performance
• Employee capability has emerged as a crucial factor
• This context offers opportunities for visionary HR
specialists able to perceive where effective people
management will make a difference to their
organisations
• Thus a clear step forward from the situation Drucker
describes in the first quote….
Yet … What Do HR
Specialists Actually Do?
Best practice ideas suggest that HR specialists:
• Develop and implement HR policy
• Advise line managers on the interpretation of
policy and the legal framework
• Develop effective job structures
• Promote employee capability
• Envisage the future (planning)
• Enhance employee motivation
• Demonstrate HR contribution to business
effectiveness
Evidence from Employing
Organisations….
• Job advertisements (in the UK) show that HR
professionals fall into two categories
– Those performing operational roles: useful and important
activities – maybe not influencing higher-level decision-making
– Those operating at a strategic level: seeking HR specialists who
are ‘passionate about achieving business aims’, ‘creative and
innovative’, ‘establishing development plans to support growth
strategy
Salaries in the UK are about double for the second
category (no reason to imagine this would be different
in other global contexts)
Types of HR Activity
• Deviant innovatorbusiness partner, clerk of
works, handmaiden etc
• Legge (1978) suggested
that personnel specialists
should redefine
organisational criteria of
success (think of today’s
focus on CSR and
sustainability…)
• Categorisations of HR have highlighted strategic
versus operational focus
• Also, HR’s propensity to engage with people as
opposed to processes
• Ulricht offers an inspiring and sometimes
disconcerting vision of the future of HR
• Each role has the potential to add value, but
unless the contribution offered is substantive,
HR risks being marginalised
Tensions and Challenges for
the Profession
• Has the HR role expanded to encompass a
stronger strategic imperative?
• What can HR specialists do to enhance their
status and contribution?
The Research Evidence
• Caldwell (2002)
– In a study of 500 major UK organisations showed that
HR professionals described themselves as Advisors,
with 67% of sample also highlighting the Change
Agent role
• Truss et al. (2002)
– in a qualitative longitudinal study of two organisations
found that both contextual factors (how the HR team
was ‘expected’ to behave) and the personal attributes
of HR specialists determined the extent of their
contribution to strategic decision-making
• Wright et al. (2002) found that HR was seen to
contribute to service delivery rather than to
strategic decision-making. The function was
valued for this input, however
• These findings were also reported by Buyens &
De Vos (2001) who found that change
management had become a major concern for
top management.
• There is a range of roles available and enacted,
but HR has yet to achieve its full potential
• There is a gap between normative models of
strategic HR and the behavioural reality of HR
practice
• BUT recognition of HR’s role does exist, and
where HR plays a strategic role, it is because
the HR specialists have been good at marketing
their services and capitalising on success
Factors Influencing the
Strategic Role
• HR is constrained by the context within which it
is located (Bach & Della Rocca, 2000)
• This is especially so for public sector
organisations: ‘institutional isomorphism’
• Contested ownership of the HR agenda
• Capability and commitment of the senior
management team
• The relationship between HR and other agents
within the organisation
Other Roles for HR?
• Such as employment law advice, welfare initiatives
• This area has in some cases expanded to reflect:
– Trends in the external environment
– Demands and expectations of employees
• Further, some have argued that HR needs to retain its
close links with employees
• Systematising and outsourcing HR tends to remove HR
specialists from the people whose needs they have
represented traditionally
• Welfare initiatives are more likely to take root where a
business need can be demonstrated
Knowledge
• Theory, models and techniques for managing
performance, learning and development, reward
and communication
• Understanding how to apply knowledge
synergistically
• Knowledge of organisational structures and
cultures
• Developing employees’ interest and enthusiasm
for the brand: what HR offers to the business
and to the people it employs
Skills
• Change management skills
– Encouraging ownership and recognising differences
of opinion
• Developing future leaders
– Being good coaches
– Offering feedback
• Developing strategy, including ‘scenario
planning’
• Marketing the HR contribution
Developing Knowledge and
Skills
•
•
•
•
Update professional and theoretical knowledge
The CIPD professional development framework
‘Thinking performers’
Open to opportunities for learning in the
workplace
• Having a mentor in a senior position
• Secondments, work shadowing and placement
opportunities all allow understanding of the HR
role and the challenges it faces
• In the UK, The CIPD has developed a strong and
supportive profile for both strategic and operational
roles
– Membership 127,000 today
– Gained ‘Chartered’ status in 2000
– Increased professionalism of HR (many
employers demand CIPD accreditation)
– Apparently, more overseas students welcome
CIPD accreditation for their home countries
– The CIPD is working to develop its international
profile
In Conclusion
• HR has an unprecedented opportunity to
influence the strategic agenda, which has not
been entirely realised
• Will HR be the function to take on board this
responsibility?
– Needs to use its position with an overview of the
organisation
– Knowledge and skill base of HR is unique
• The HR function has to go on to convince others
of its ability to add value either operationally or
strategically