Human Resource

Management
ELEVENTH EDITION
1
GARY DESSLER

Part 1 | Introduction

Chapter 1

Introduction to Human Resource Management

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Explain what human resource management is

and how it relates to the management process.
2. Give at least eight examples of how all
managers can use human resource
management concepts and techniques.
3. Illustrate the human resources responsibilities
of line and staff (HR) managers.
4. Provide a good example that illustrates HR’s
role in formulating and executing company
strategy.

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 The Management Process

Planning

Controlling Organizing

Leading Staffing

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 The Management Process

• Planning: Establishing goals and standards;

developing rules and procedures;
developing plans and forecasting.
• Organizing: Giving each subordinate a
specific task; establishing departments;
delegating authority to subordinates;
establishing channels of authority and
communication; coordinating the work of
subordinates.

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 The Management Process

• Staffing:
Determining what type of people should be hired
Recruiting prospective employees
Selecting employees
Setting performance standards
Compensating employees
Evaluating performance
Counseling employees
Training and developing employees

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 The Management Process
• Leading: Getting others to get the job done;
maintaining morale; motivating subordinates.
• Controlling:
- Setting standards such as sales quotas,
quality standards, or production levels
- Checking to see how actual performance
compares with this standards
- Taking corrective action as needed.

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Human Resource Management at Work
• What Is Human Resource Management
(HRM)?
 The policies and practices involved in carrying out
the “people” or human resource aspects of a
management position, including;
Recruiting
Screening
Training
Rewarding
Appraising

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 Human Resource Management at Work

Acquisition

Fairness Training

Human
Resource
Management
Health and
(HRM) Appraisal
Safety

Labor Relations Compensating

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Personnel Aspects of a Manager’s Job
• Conducting job analyses
• Planning labor needs and recruiting job candidates
• Selecting job candidates
• Orienting and training new employees
• Managing wages and salaries
• Providing incentives and benefits
• Appraising performance
• Communicating
• Training and developing managers
• Building employee commitment

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Personnel Mistakes
• Hire the wrong person for the job
• Experience high turnover
• Have your people not doing their best
• Waste time with useless interviews
• Have your company in court because of discriminatory actions
• Have your company cited under federal occupational safety laws
for unsafe practices
• Have some employees think their salaries are unfair and
inequitable relative to others in the organization
• Allow a lack of training to undermine your department’s
effectiveness
• Commit any unfair labor practices

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Line and Staff Aspects of HRM
Authority is the right to make decisions, to direct the
work of others, and to give orders.
• Line manager
 A manager who is authorized to direct the work of
subordinates and is responsible for accomplishing
the organization’s tasks.
• Staff manager
 A manager who assists and advises line managers.

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Line Managers’ HRM Responsibilities
1. Placing the right person on the right job
2. Starting new employees in the organization (orientation)
3. Training employees for jobs that are new to them
4. Improving the job performance of each person
5. Gaining creative cooperation and developing smooth working
relationships
6. Interpreting the firm’s policies and procedures
7. Controlling labor costs
8. Developing the abilities of each person
9. Creating and maintaining department morale
10. Protecting employees’ health and physical condition

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 Human Resource Specialties

Recruiters

Labor Relations EEO

Specialists Coordinators
Human
Resource
Specialties
Training
Job Analysts
Specialists

Compensation
Managers

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 Human Resource Managers’ Duties

Line Function Coordinative

Line Authority Function
Implied Authority Functional Authority

Functions of
HR Managers

Staff Functions
Staff Authority
Innovator
Employee Advocacy

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FIGURE 1–1
HR Organization Chart
for a Large Organization

Source: www.hr.wayne.edu/orgcharts.php. Accessed May 6, 2007.

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FIGURE 1–2 HR Organizational Chart (Small Company)

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FIGURE 1–3 Employment and Recruiting—Who Handles It?
(Percentage of All Employers)

Note: Length of bars represents prevalence of activity among all surveyed employers.

Source: HR MAGAZINE, BNA/Society for Human Resource Management, 2002.

Reproduced with permission via Copyright Clearance Center.
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 The Changing Environment of
Human Resource Management

Globalization Trends

Technological Trends
Changes and Trends
in Human Resource
Management
Trends in the Nature of Work

Workforce Demographic Trends

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 The Changing Environment of
Human Resource Management
Globalization Trends:
Globalization refers to the tendency of firms to extend
their sales, ownership, and/or manufacturing to new
markets abroad.
Globalization of the world economy and other trends has
triggered changes in how companies organize, manage and
use their HR departments.
More globalization means more competition, and more
competition means more pressure to lower costs, make
employees more productive, and do things better and less
expensively.

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 The Changing Environment of
Human Resource Management

Technological Trends:
•Virtual online communities,
•Virtual design environments
•Internet-based distribution systems
have enabled firms to become more competitive.
HR faces the challenge of quickly applying technology to
the task of improving its own operations.

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 The Changing Environment of
Human Resource Management

Trends in the Nature of Work:

Jobs are changing due to new technological demands.
Nontraditional workers, such as those who hold multiple
jobs, “contingent” or part-time workers, or people working in
alternative work arrangements, enable employers to keep
costs down.
- High-Tech Jobs
- Service Jobs
- Human Capital

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 The Changing Environment of
Human Resource Management

Workforce Demographic Trends:

The labor force is getting older and more multi-ethnic. The
aging labor force presents significant changes in terms of
potential labor shortages, and many firms are instituting
new policies aimed at encouraging aging employees to
stay, or at attracting previously retired employees.

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 The Changing Role of
Human Resource Management

Strategic Human
Resource
Management

Managing with the New Creating High-

HR Scorecard Responsibilities Performance Work
Process for HR Managers Systems

Measuring the HRM

Team’s Performance

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 Creating High- Performance Work Systems

• Use of technology

• Effective HR practices

• Instituting HPWS

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TABLE 1–1 Technological Applications for HR

Application Service Providers (ASPs) and technology outsourcing

Web portals
PCs and high-speed access
Streaming desktop video
The mobile Web and wireless net access
E-procurement
Internet- and network-monitoring software
Bluetooth
Electronic signatures
Electronic bill presentment and payment
Data warehouses and computerized analytical programs

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 Creating High- Performance Work Systems

Effective HR practices:

• Pre-employment personality testing

• Increased training

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High-Performance Work System Practices
• Employment security
• Selective hiring
• Extensive training
• Self-managed teams/decentralized decision making
• Reduced status distinctions
• Information sharing
• Contingent (pay-for-performance) rewards
• Transformational leadership
• Measurement of management practices
• Emphasis on high-quality work

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Benefits of a High-Performance
Work System (HPWS)
• Generate more job applicants
• Screen candidates more effectively
• Provide more and better training
• Link pay more explicitly to performance
• Provide a safer work environment
• Produce more qualified applicants per position
• Hiring based on validated selection tests
• Provide more hours of training for new employees
• Conduct more performance appraisals
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FIGURE 1–5 Five Sample HR Metrics
HR Metric* How to Calculate It
Absence rate # of days absent in month
× 100
Average of employees during month of workdays

Cost per hire Advertising + agency fees + employee referrals + travel cost of
applicants and staff + relocation costs + recruiter pay and benefits
Number of hires

HR expense HR expense
factor Total operating expense

Time to fill Total days elapsed to fill job requisitions

Number hired

Turnover rate Number of separations during month

× 100
Average number of employees during month
Sources: Robert Grossman, “Measuring Up,” HR Magazine, January 2000, pp. 29–35; Peter V. Le Blanc, Paul Mulvey, and Jude T. Rich, “Improving the Return on Human Capital: New Metrics,”
Compensation and Benefits Review, January/February 2000, pp. 13–20; Thomas E. Murphy and Sourushe Zandvakili, “Data and Metrics-Driven Approach to Human Resource Practices: Using
Customers, Employees, and Financial Metrics,” Human Resource Management 39, no. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 93–105; [HR Planning, Commerce Clearing House Incorporated, July 17, 1996;] SHRM/BNA
2000 Cost Per Hire and Staffing Metrics Survey; www.shrm.org. See also, SHRM Research “2006 Strategic HR Management Survey Report,” Society for Human Resource Management..
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Measuring HR’s Contribution
• The HR Scorecard
 Shows the quantitative standards, or
“metrics” the firm uses to measure
HR activities.
 Measures the employee behaviors
resulting from these activities.
 Measures the strategically relevant
organizational outcomes of those
employee behaviors.

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The Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies
• New Proficiencies
 HR proficiencies

 Business proficiencies

 Leadership proficiencies

 Learning proficiencies

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The Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies

• HR proficiencies
Represent traditional knowledge and
skills in areas such as employee selection,
training, and compensation.

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The Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies

• Business proficiencies
Reflect human resource professionals’ new strategic
role.
For example, to assist the top management team in
formulating strategies, the human resource manager
needs to be familiar with strategic planning, marketing,
production, and finance.

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The Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies

• Leadership proficiencies

They need the ability to work with and lead

management group, and to drive the changes required.

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The Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies

• Learning proficiencies

Because the competitive landscape is changing so

quickly and new technologies are being continually
introduced, the human resource manager needs
learning proficiencies.

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FIGURE 1–6 Effects CFOs Believe Human Capital Has on Business Outcomes

Source: Steven H. Bates, “Business Partners,” HR Magazine, September 2003, p. 49. Reproduced
with permission of the Society for Human Resource Management via Copyright Clearance Center.
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HR Certification
• HR is becoming more professionalized.
• Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM)
 SHRM’s Human Resource Certification
Institute (HRCI)
 SPHR (senior professional in HR)
certificate
 PHR (professional in HR)
certificate

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FIGURE 1–7
2004 SHRM®
Learning
System
Module
Descriptions

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The Human Resource Manager’s
Proficiencies (cont’d)
• Managing within the Law
 Equal employment laws

 Occupational safety and health laws

 Labor laws

• Managing Ethics
 Ethical lapses

 Sarbanes-Oxley in 2003

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The Plan of This Book: Basic Themes
• HRM is the responsibility of every manager.
• HR managers must defend their plans and
contributions in measurable terms.
• All personnel actions and decisions have strategic
implications.
• All managers rely on information technology.
• Virtually every personnel decision has legal
implications.
• Globalization and diversity are important HR issues
today

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FIGURE 1–8 Strategy and the Basic Human Resource Management Process

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 KEY TERMS

management process globalization

human resource management human capital
(HRM) strategy
authority strategic plan
line manager metrics
staff manager HR Scorecard
line authority outsourcing
staff authority ethics
implied authority strategic human resource
functional control management
employee advocacy high-performance work system

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