SHRM — Notes
Functions of Management (The management process)
 Planning, organizing, staffing, leading, controlling
Planning:
 Establishing goals
 Deciding in advance — what to do, when to do, and how to do. It bridges the gap from where we are and where we want to be
 Deals with chalking out a future course of action and deciding in advance the most appropriate course of action.
Organizing:
 Delegation, assignment of responsibilities
 The process of bringing together physical, financial, and human resources and developing a productive relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals.
o Identification of activities
o Classification of grouping of activities
o Assignment of duties
o Delegation of authority and creation of responsibility
o Coordinating authority and responsibility relationships

Staffing:
 Recruiting, training, promotions
 Involves manning the organization structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal and development of personnel to fill the roles designed in the structure
o Manpower planning
o Recruitment, selection, and placement
o Training and development
o Remuneration
o Performance appraisals
o Promotions and transfer

Leading:
 Social aspects — motivating, supervising
 Deals directly with influence, guiding, supervising, motivating subordinates for the achievement of organizational goals.
o Supervision — Overseeing the work of subordinates
o Motivation — Inspiring, stimulating, or encouraging subordinates
o Leadership — Guidance, influence
o Communication — Passing information, experience, opinions. Bridge of understanding.

Controlling:
 Setting quantifiable standards for future comparison, measuring performance
 Implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and correction of deviation if any to ensure achievement of organizational goals.
 The measurement and correction of performance activities of subordinates in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and plans desired to obtain them as being accomplished.
o Establishment of standard performance
 E.g: Monthly sales quota
o Measurement of actual performance
o Comparison of actual performance with the standards and finding out deviation if any
o Corrective action

Types of managers:
Line manager: A person who directly managers other employees and operations of a business while reporting to a higher-ranking manager. The line manager term is often used interchangeably with
“Direct manager”.
 Main duty is to issue orders down the chain of command. Line managers hold a superior- subordinate relationship with them.
 A line manager is authorized to direct the work of subordinates and is responsible for accomplishing the organization’s tasks
Staff manager: General term for anyone who manages staff — line managers, functional managers with staff, directors with staff, are all staff managers.
 Main duty is to advise other managers or employees. Staff managers hold an advisory relationship with them.
 Unlike line managers, staff managers lack the authority to issue orders down the chain of command.
Functional manager: Someone who manages a business function with or without staff. For example, a systems manager might only have responsibility for workflow to an entirely outsourced team and no
direct staff management. A program manager for service transition might have a floating team of a couple of dozen people as well as a set of contracted outsource functions.
Types of authority:
Functional Authority: Refers to the authority exerted by HR towards a specific activity or business function. Functional authority is also considered a Coordinative Function. It is the authority exerted by a
HR manager as coordinator of personnel activities.
 E.g: Ensuring that line managers are implementing the firm’s human resources policies and practices.
Line Authority: Refers to a manager’s right to issue orders to other managers or employees, which creates a superior-subordinate relationship.
Staff Authority: Refers to a manager’s right to advise other managers or employees, which creates an advisory relationship

Human resource managers carry out three primary functions: Staff, Coordinative, Line.
 Line: Directing members of the HR department
 Coordinative (Also referred to as Functional Authority): Ensuring that line managers implement HR policies in their respective departments.

 Staff: Assisting and advising line managers and representing employee interests to senior management
Tip: In most firms, there is one HR employee for every 100 company employees. Therefore, a firm with 500 company employees would require 5 HR employees to handle all of the firm’s HR issues.
 Transactional HR Groups
 Embedded HR Units
 HR Centers of expertise
 Corporate HR Groups
Transactional HR Groups: These provide specialized support in day-to-day transactional HR activities (Such as changing benefits plans and providing updated appraisal forms) to the company’s employees
 Transactional refers to day-to-day operations
 Transactional HR groups typically refer to call centers and outsourcing arrangements
Embedded HR Units: Having a HR representative in specific departments. Assigns HR generalists (also known as “relationship managers” or “HR business partners”) directly to departments like sales and
production, to provide the localized human resource management assistance the departments need.
 If employees are unable to receive the HR assistance they need on a regular basis, then it would be appropriate for the firm to assign HR generalists to each department as a direct line to the
HR department.
 Embedded HR Units prevent the problem of inconsistent assistance that employees sometimes face with a large HR department.
HR centers of expertise: Specialized HR consulting firms within the company — for instance, they provide assistance in areas such as organizational change Corporate HR groups: Focuses on assisting top management in “top level” big picture issues such as developing and explaining the personnel aspects of the company’s long-term strategic plan

Worker trends across the US:
 Globalization means lower prices and higher quality of goods. However, this also means lower job security as more and more companies are outsourcing transactional operations to overseas.
 There is a shift from manufacturing to service jobs due to more integrated supply chains. This eliminates slack and inefficiencies out of the production system and enables firms to produce more products with fewer employees
 Human capital refers to the knowledge, education, training, skills, and expertise of a firm’s
workers.
 The U.S may face a labor shortage in a few years because there are fewer people entering the
workforce than there are retiring baby boomers.
 One of the primary challenges of Generation Y employees is their need for constant praise and
recognition.
 Due to globalization, HR managers are now focusing more on big picture issues and strategic goals. Transactional services like benefits administration are being outsourced more frequently.
 Outsourcing refers to using outside vendors to provide a service that was once handled internally by a firm’s employees. Many transactional (day-to-day) HR services are being outsourced, such as issuing checks and handling benefits administration.

Data Warehouse: These, along with computerized analytical programs help HR managers monitor their HR systems.
 Both make it simpler for HR managers to assess things like cost per hire and to compare current
employees’ skills with the firm’s projected strategic needs.
Shifts in the role of HR:
Previously: HR mainly focused on employee training, compensation, and hiring

Now: HR must be familiar with strategic planning, marketing, production, and finance. HR should be able to explain HR activities in financially measurable terms, such as return on investment and cost per unit
of service.
Strategic Human Resource Management involves formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that product the employee competencies and behaviors the company needs to achieve strategic aims.
 Strategic human resource plans enable a company to hire the employees who will exhibit the behaviors the company needs to accomplish its goals.

High Performance Work System is a set of human resource management policies and practices that together produce superior employee performance.
 This results in higher overall performance, higher profits, lower operating costs, and lower worker turnover in comparison to low-performance work systems.

Tip: SHRM Test Topics include: Ethics, management practices, staffing, development, compensation, labor relations, strategic management, workforce planning, health and safety.