Management Is an Integral Part of the Work of Everyone

Executive Summary

HRM may have many good thing to offer and line manager and perform many of it’s duties. Some line manager thing they are doing lot of HR duties and they are don’t mind doing it. However, other agrees that they don’t have enough knowledge and experience to carry put some of the action. Also they see these actions as waste of their time.

Table of Content Introduction1 Who is line manager? 1 The role of line managers in implementing HR processes2 Relationship between HR and the line2 Devolving responsibility down the line2 Impact of line manager behaviour3 Managing line managers4 Recommendation:5 Conclusion5 Reference5 Introduction This report will look at the how HRM can be incorporated to HRM. The involvement of line manager in HRM has been noted in literature from early 80’s. this report will try to show the role of line manager in implementing the role of HR and possible obstacle they may face due to this.

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Who is line manager? Front Line manager usually promoted from normal employees. As a result, they are experienced and know the general employee well, while they may not have any formal management education. CIPD have given a typical role of a front line manager, which may include the followings:

• Day-to-day people management
• Managing operational costs
• Providing technical expertise
• Organisation of work allocation and rotas
• Monitoring work processes
• Checking quality
• Dealing with customers/clients

Measuring operational performance. Increasingly, line managers are taking new responsibilities such as undertake performance appraisals, handle disciplinary activity also provide coaching and guidance. Moreover, in many companies line manager carry out responsibility such as recruitment and selection along side with HR. To answer the question why line managers are important? Sisson (1994, pp. 7-8) have given four principles of HRM, which includes beliefs and assumptions, managerial role, organisation design and personal policy.

Sisson also defines the role of top-manager, where it was stated that top-managers should establish organisation’s mission and values, and shearing their future vision and success with other employee and provide transformational leadership. Where as when describing the role of middle manager Sisson states that they should be able to “inspire, encourage, enable and facilitate change by harnessing commitment and co-operation of (the organization’s) employees; they also see the development of employees as a primary role” (Sisson, 1994, p. 8).

Hence, it can be said that Sisson trying to say every layers of management has important part to play in implementing the HRM approach in an organisation. The role of line managers in implementing HR processes Relationship between HR and the line Research has shown front line managers play more central role in implementing people management policies, because they have influence in employee’s attitude and behaviours. Which, in turn affects the performance of an organisation (Hutchinson and Purcell, 2003). Although line manager have some input in this area but many HR directors have shown concern about the ffectiveness of line manager in implementing people management policies (Hutchinso, 2008). When a line manager was asked about their role “one manager interviewed remarked ‘you are the piggy in the middle’ – on the one hand expected to be the voice of management and yet on the other the champion of the team’s interests” (Hutchinso, 2008). Storey (1992) have made the role of line manager clear and cleared the idea that HRM is not another alternative title for Personal Management; rather it is very unique approach. Storey has identified 3 elements that connects HRM and line manager.

The first element is to agree that HR of a company is the ones that “make the differences”. Connected to the first, the second element is as a result HR needs to be managed in a strategic way. Therefore, Storey states “people-management decisions ought not to be treated as incidental operational matters or be sidelined into the hands of personnel officers” (Storey, 1992: p. 26). Connecting first and second element, Storey stated his third element, which requires line managers to be aware of HR and Strategic direction of an organisation as stated by top-level managers.

Thus, the management of people have to be done accordingly by the line managers. Devolving responsibility down the line In late 80’s and early 90’s the use of the term human resource management (HRM) gave rise to pool of literature to be written in order to establish the definition and differences of HRM compare to Personal Management (PM). Among many others Armstrong (1987) was saying “The game was changing and it was useful to have a new name and a new language to encapsulate what was taking place in the world of work. Even though, there were lot of disagreement about HRM and PM, however many have agreed that the new proposed HRM system increased the role of line manager. Hence, numerous articles and reports have been written on the involvement of Line manager in HRM. Currie and Procter (2001) presented in their report that, recently line manager is playing more central role to HRM because of the fact that some HR works is ‘devolved’ to the line manager. The researches carried out by CIPD have shown that, there are positive feelings amongst the employee when the line manages plays significant role in implementing some of the HR policies themselves.

As a result, employees have higher level of commitment and satisfaction in their job, which gives higher performance. Cunningham et. el (1999) have stated that devolution of responsibility between line manager and HR consultants, enables release of HR professional "from the burdensome toil of conducting routine techniques”. As a result they can focus more on strategic business decision (Whittaker, and Marchington, 2003). Impact of line manager behaviour Line managers have significant effects on employees. Their behaviour and practice will affect the level and focus of employee commitment.

The goal of HRM is to achieve employees’ commitment to the organization, with the aim of making these employees “more satisfied, more productive and more adaptable” (Guest, 1987, p. 513). That is only possible with having a strong line manager who can recognise, and appreciate the work of employees. Research shown that generally line managers are relatively happy in completing some HR work, one of the managers said, “If there wasn’t any personnel [function] I’d need to do personnel work anyway, because it’s my job (Power Business, Utility Co. ”. However, same time they agree that they are on their own inadequacies in HRM. Another manager have made remark such as: “Look at sickness absence, there are those line managers that will do that without being reminded, there are those that will do that because they care, and there are line managers that just will not do it unless they are actually pushed into doing it. I think the more HR that we push down to the line managers, the more uncontrolled it will become (Generation Business, Utility Co. )” (Renwick, 2003).

Renwick (2003) have done extensive research on line manager involvement in HRM, and listed many positive and negative of HRM perctices withing line managers. Some of these are listed below (1) Positives:  The line are taking on responsibility and accountability in HR work.  Flexibility is forthcoming from the line to do HR work.  The line are keen to take part on doing HR work. The line are managing large numbers of employees. The line take a professional and serious attitude to doing HR work. Line managers are relatively happy doing some HR work. The line are considerate of employee needs and wishes. The line see HR as positive helpers in HR work. * The line see career bene? ts for them in doing HR work. (2) Negatives: The line have many duties, and lack time to do HR work well. * The line do not see themselves as experts in HRM. Doing HR work dilutes the line’s generalist managerial focus.  Signi? cant line inadequacies in handling HR work.  Tensions between line and HR over transfer and completion of HR duties. * The line need to re? ect and be critical of their performance in HR work. The line are reliant on HR to do HR work properly.  Differing line commitment and discipline levels to doing HRM.  The line have responsibility and accountability in HRM, but little authority. Little appreciation of line exibility in doing HR tasks from rms. After the research Renwick summarised it with saying line managers “acknowledge that they shared the completion of HR work with HR. ” However, although line are doing well in some HRM practices, but still they lucks the expertise, knowledge and experience to carry out full HRM duties.

Moreover, many aspects of HRM line dislike doing. Redman’s (2001) finding shows that some line will complete employee performance appraisal over phone call. Managing line managers To get best performance from the line manager they have to be managed in right way. The relationship line manager enjoys with from their manager will reflect on how line manager conducts themselves with others. The graph below shows how senior management felt about HRM and effect it will have on value added activities.

The trends shows that the move towards strategic HRM mean that an ef? cient and professional service will be delivered within agreed time-scales with an ensured consistency of approach, (Sisson, 1994). Fig 1. The road to achieving a value-added function (Sisson, 1994). The figure and the report have show that line managers are happen to carry out some of the duties, however, they do feel long and bureaucratic process of HRM is waste of their time. Recommendation: I feel line manager should perform some HRM actions.

Such as , undertaking performance appraisal. This process will enable them to learn more about the employee, hence they will be able to relate to the employee and show consideration for them. Since, line manager is the first level of contact with employee they should take the responsibility to overlook the employee‘s training and couching. Moreover, line manager should be the role model and shows how to balance work-life. Conclusion Although HRM practices show benefit to an organisation, however there are still many areas need more clarity.

Although line manager understand the importance of HR work but they still require training and understanding some of the practices of HRM. Line manager have the most influence, performance and commitment of employee greatly depends on how line manager conduct themselves with employees.

Reference

1. Armstrong, M. (1987. Human resource management: a case of the emperor’s new clothes?. Personnel Management, Vol. 19 No. 8, pp. 30-5.
2. Cunningham, I. and Hyman, J. (1999), “Devolving HR responsibilities to the line – beginning of the end or a new beginning for personnel? ”, Personnel Review, Vol. 8 No. 1-2, pp. 9-27.
3. Currie, G. and Procter, S. (2001). Exploring the relationship between HR and middle managers. Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 53-69. Hutchinson, S. (2008).
4. The role of front line managers in bringing policies to life. Bristol Business School. Hutchinson, S. and Purcell, J. (2003).
5. Bringing Policies to Life: The vital role of front line managers. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Renwick, D, (2003)
6. "Line manager involvement in HRM: an inside view", Employee Relations, Vol. 25 Iss: 3, pp. 262 – 280 Richbell, S. 2001),
7. “Trends and emerging values in human resource management: The UK scene”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 261-8.
8. Sisson, K. (1994), “Personnel management: paradigms, practice and prospects”, in Sisson, K. (Ed. ), Personnel Management – A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice in Britain, 2nd ed. , Blackwell, Oxford.
9. Storey, J. (1992), Development in the Management of Human Resources, Blackwell, Oxford.
10. Whittaker, S. Marchington, M. (2003) "Devolving HR responsibility to the line: Threat, opportunity or partnership? ", Employee Relations, Vol. 25 Iss: 3, pp. 245 - 261

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