THE DEVOLUTION OF HR TO THE LINE

IMPLICATIONS FOR PERCEPTIONS

OF PEOPLE MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS

COURSE NAME
Human Resource Management (BUS 601), Sec- 03
Instructor:
Mohammad Thoufiqul Islam, PHD
Date- 08/02/2016
Case Presented by,
Md.Rakibul Islam Rakib

ID# 1521418660

Imtiaz Faisal

ID#1530314060

Rabeya Akhtar

ID#1521656060

Navila Rahman

ID#153 0946 660

Sadia Rahman

ID#1512793060

Sanjana Sabrina

ID#1512901660

HRM DEVOLUTION SIGNIFICANCES

Flow from human resource managers to line managers.
People Management Effectiveness.
Interaction between Line manager & precise devolution
Thats why
Prospect line managers with training and support.
Proper understand of People Management Effectiveness
HRM activities are the special responsibility of HR Dept. However, these
responsibilities are also a part of every line managers job along with their
basic responsibilities. Line Managers have authority and considerable impact
on the way employees actually behave. Therefore, theres an overlap of the
authority between HRD and the line managers.

IMPLICATIONS OF DEVOLUTION
Positive Implication
Line managers should be better able to make faster decisions
More tailored to individual circumstances
Talent acquisition by proper monitoring & training
Negative Implication
See HR concerns as poor second
Pay insufficient attention to HR issues
Case analysis result on devolution
Negative implications for effective people management

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
What is People Management???

Literature Review
HRM automatically comes under discussion in every HRM research on
devolution or devolvement. There are 3 aspects presented in the research:
The Causes of Devolution
Its Impact on HR and Line Manager
The Problemattic approach
The Causes of Devolution are:
The development of profit-center based approaches
A need for a comprehensive approach to people management
Decision making in front of the customers and in real time due to growing
influence of the services
The changes in the philosophy and organizational Structure an alternative
to outsourcing.

Literature Review
Its Impact on HR and Line Manager is:
Devolution creates both threats and opportunities for the HR specialist.
Tasks and responsibilities may fall on to line management that cause a loss
of influence, but it might also facilitate the concentration on those HR tasks
that really matter.
The Problems it creates for the two are:
Devolution to the line is still problematic, and that access to strategic
decisions remains to be contingent on the ability of the senior HR managers
or directors to influence people.
Devolution is a major factor by organizations that report a decline in HR
influence (Gennard & Kelly, 1997). As a result, HR Departments lack
overall control over issues, such as training budgets and operational
strategies.

CASE BASED HYPOTHESIS

H0: If there is Devolution Strategy, Line Managers will be effective
regarding People Management.
H1: If there is Devolution Strategy, Line Managers will be
ineffective regarding People Management.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT: THE IMPORTANCE OF LINE SUPPORT

HR is Divided into two parts as regards Devolution

Devolution Strategy have positive impact over HRM.
It has no impact over HRM.
Some Authors' Views
Positive impact due to proper training
Training is important to avoid costly mistake.

LINE SUPPORT PROBLEMS

Problems:
Training is costly
Unavailability of resources
Managers feel threatened

STUDY METHODS
Sampling and Data Collection
4073 mail list was acquired
Questionnaire was sent to 250 managers according to the size and HR
Practices of the companies.
There was 174 response

OUTCOME MEASURE
According to People management effectiveness:
Respondents asking how effectively people
management issues were managed in their
organization. Respondents indicated their answers on
a 5-point scale(1=disagree strongly, 5= agree
strongly). A sample item includes, Overall, people
management very effectively performed activities in
their organization.

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DIFFERENT VARIABLES
Predictor variable
Devolution:
Increased responses were coded as 1; all other responses were
coded as 0.
Moderator variable
Line support:
How much employee agreed or disagreed intended to measure line
manager support for their HR responsibilities

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CONTROL VARIABLES
we included an overall assessment of the organizations
performance compared to other organizations that do the same
kind of work
Two dummy variables describing the organizations primary
strategy as one of dynamic growth or extract profit
Wright et al. (1998) found that organizations strategy influences
HRs strategic and HR effectiveness.

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DISCUSSION
The purpose of this research was to examine whether devolution

would result in effective people management.

Our methodology used a survey design that permitted us to directly
compare organizations adopting a devolution strategy with
organizations not adopting such a strategy.
Our research suggests that devolution does have a positive effect on
HR respondents perceptions of people management effectiveness.

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DISCUSSION (CONTINUED)
Although the use of a devolution strategy is on the rise, it is still a

relatively modest trend.

Our HR respondents perceived that people management was more
effective when HR staff were less personally responsible for these
activities.
In our research, the main effect of devolution on people
management effectiveness was qualified by the extent to which line
managers were given support and training and were held
accountable for their HR responsibilities.

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DISCUSSION (CONTINUED)
However, line support was positively associated with effective people

management in both devolved and non-devolved organizations. Line

support had a bigger impact on effective people management in nondevolved organizations.
Hall and Torrington (1998) have conceptualized devolution as an
ongoing process. Organizations achieve devolution in stages, bundling
together specific people management activities (e.g. recruitment and
selection) that are incrementally transferred to the line.
Eventually, this transfer process might culminate in a state of full
devolution with the line having primary ongoing responsibility for
most, if not all, people management activities.

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RESEARCH LIMITATIONS:
Relying on a mail survey across a number of organizations and industries
Surveys targeting respondents within a single organization achieve higher
response
Not having access to information about non-respondents
Suggest that future research explore alternative incentives and techniques
Given line managers relative lack of knowledge and training around HRrelated issues
HR employees having specialized training in HR subject matter in the best
position to assess accurately

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RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
(CONTINUED.) :
Multiple respondents from organizations would reduce measurement
error and bias
Most of the empirical literature on devolution has examined
organizations in Europe and the UK
Future research should explore the effects of devolution in a variety of
national contexts
Not capturing the absolute amount of devolution any given
organization experienced
devolution influenced perceptions of people management effectiveness
in the current study

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