The scope of human resource management functions and activities

Résumé du document

The most important resource in an organization is its people. So the role they play, how they play, how they interact through formal and informal processes and the relationships they build are crucial to the success of strategy" say Johnson and Scholes (2002: 419). Human Resource Management (HRM) is "an intervening process aimed at continuously establishing an optimal fit or match between people and their employing organizations" (Swanepoel et al. 2003: 15). In this way, HRM is "very dynamic", "complex" and "demanding area of management". Managing people successfully in the workplace is a concern of HRM. Most of managers in organizations perform this function. It is a well known fact that the main role of a human resource department is to ensure the recruitment, selection, training, development and retention of employees for the well being of the organization. However, HRM is not restricted to this mission.

Extraits

[...] The employees are now in the organisation in the right place at the right time. The objective is to develop his/her skills to perform as well as possible Using and maintaining human resource In order to maintain the employees within the organisation, to improve their performance, to plan their future positions or to ensure competitiveness of the organisation in the market by retraining workers or preparing themselves to change or restructuration, the HRM has to develop a human resource development (HRD) function. [...]

[...] Most of managers in organisations perform this function. It is a well known fact that the main role of a human resource department is to ensure the recruitment, selection, training, development and retention of employees for the well being of the organisation. However, HRM is not restricted to this mission is viewed as an intrinsic part of an organisation and its management. It is a management's task to combine, deploy and utilise all resources and/or inputs available to the organisation in a way which will ensure long-term organisational success in a changing environment to the benefit of all its stakeholders” (Swanepoel et al. [...]

[...] The HRM strategic planning is the process of “analysing an organisations human resources needs under changing conditions and developing the necessary activities to satisfy these needs” (Ferris et al. 1995). This process can be viewed as the process of “developing and implementing plans and programmes to ensure that the right number and types of individuals are available at the right time and place to perform the work necessary to achieve the organisation's objectives” (Dolan and Schuler 1987: 41). Regarding to these two definitions the HRM department structures the work and the organisation through work analysis, job design/redesign, and designing appropriate organisational structures to facilitate optimal flow of work. [...]

[...] In this way it is a challenge to provide a brief summary of the major HRM functions and activities. In this section we will mostly use the works of Swanepoel et al. (2003: 31) Planning and organising for work, people and human resource management One of the main objectives of HRM is coordinate the interaction between people doing the work within the organisation” which can be defined as coordinated social entity” (Swanepoel et al. 2005: 11). One of the major activities of the HRM department is to formulate long- term strategies in order to put in place decisions, choices and actions regarding the organisation's human resources architecture human resources, the HRM system and the HRM functions) that made and performed in a way that is fully integrated with the overall general strategic management of organisations” (Swanepoel et al. [...]

[...] San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Swanepoel, JPA Introduction to Labour Law, 3rd ed. Johannesburg: Lexicon. Swanepoel, B., Erasmus, B., van Wyk, M. & Shenk, H South African Human Resource Management, 3rd ed. Cape Town: Juta. [...]