HUMAN RESOURCE

1

• HUMAN RESOURCE
• A source of competitive advantage?

Edited by Fabio Emanuele Noia, Link Campus
University of Malta, 2006
Chapter 1 Human Resource
Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003 http//www.palgrave.com/business/br
attonandgold/
2

• What are the new challenges at the beginning of
  the new millenium?
• 1. Technology impact
• 2. World is shrinking
• 3. Better and more communication
• 4. Higher visibility
• 5. Demographics
• 6. Continuous transition
• 7.
• 8.
• 9.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
3

• a strategic approach to employment relations
  which emphasizes that leveraging people
  capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable
  competitive advantage, this being achieved
  through a distinctive set of integrated
  employment polices, programmes and practices.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
4

• People at work.
• Who they are?
• Where do they work?
• When do they work?
• Why o they work?
• What do they do?

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
5

• An historical perspective
• 1950-1980
• Personnel
• Regulatory, administrative, industrial relations
  aspects
• 1980-2000
• Human Resource, internal sources of competitive
  advantage, employer-employee relations

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
6

• An historical perspective
• Hard Soft
• Hard resource
• Soft human

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
7

• An historical perspective
• Hard Soft
• Hard resource
• Soft human
• _________________
• Human Resource
• People in work organisations
• ___________________
• employee relations leveraging peoples
  capabilities achieving sustainable competitive
  advantage distinctive set of integrated
  employment policies, programmes, and practices.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
8

• Key ingredients
• People
• Integration
• Line managers

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
9

• Human Capital
• People are worth investing in as a form of
  capital peoples performance and the results
  achieved can be considered as a return on
  investment and assessed in terms of costs and
  benefits

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
10

• Human Capital
• What people bring (in a variable and
  unpredictable way) to the workplace
  intelligence, aptitudes, commitment, tacit
  knowledge, skills, ability to learn, and will
  results in behaviors favourable to the success of
  the organisation.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
11

• Nature of employment relationship
• Dynamic, interlocking economic, legal, social,
  and psychological relations that exists between
  individuals and their work organisations.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
12

• Nature of employment relationship
• Economic pay-effort bargain
• Legal law and statutory rights and obligations
  affecting both parties
• Social individuals are members of social groups
  and respond to social norms
• Antropological sharing of values, beliefs and
  underlying assumptions
• Psychological two way exchange of perceived
  promises and obligations

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
13

• Psychological contract
• Impact (beyond expectations) on
• Commitment
• Work motivation
• Task performance
• On behalf of the individual
• and
• Organisational support
• On behalf of the organisation

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
14

• Psychological contract
• A metaphor that captures a variety of largely
  unwritten expectations and understandings of the
  two parties about their mutual (perceived)
  obligations.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
15

• Psychological contract
• ___________
• What do you think about the concept of the
  psychological contract?

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
16

• Human Resource Multidimensional Activity
  requires awareness of
• ___________
• Prerogatives
• Contingencies
• Skills

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
17

• Human Resource Prerogatives
• ___________
• Planning
• Staffing
• Developing
• Motivating
• Maintaining
• Making Relations
• Making Change Happen
• Auditing
• Evaluating

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
18

• Contingencies affecting
• Human Resource
• ___________
• External context
• Organisational strategy
• Organisation

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
19

• Human Resource Skills
• ___________
• Technical, cognitive, interpersonal, mentoring,
  teaching, influence, legal, communication.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
20

• Human Resource
• Brings the attention on
• ___________
• Integration with strategic planning
• Importance of the psychological contract
• Importance of learning
• Focus on the individual
• Proactivity
• Performance outcome.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
21

• Paradoxes of
• Human Resource
• ___________
• Increase of demand for productivity and autonomy
  of workers (new organisational design) conflicts
  with demand for loyalty and commitment
  (undermined)?
• ____________
• A paradox involves ambiguity and inconsistency
  actions undertaken in contrast with goals
• ___________

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
22

• Human Resource Approach
• Extent to which it has been adopted
• ___________
• Systemic adoption scarce, no paradigm shift yet
• Individual HR practices there has been a
  remarkable take up.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
23

• Summary
• ___________
• Primacy of people
• Polisemy of human resource terminology
• Reciprocal commitment
• Different mind sets of personnel, hard and soft
  human resources
• HR Paradox
• Likelyhood of paradigm shift

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
24

• Assignment
• ___________
• www.airbus.com
• www.walmart.com
• www.virgin.com
• __________
• Evaluate goals of HR
• Department as
• described on websites.

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003
25

• Searching the web
• ___________
• www.hrhq.com
• www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
• www.ahri.com.au
• www.ipm.co.za

Freely Inspired from Bratton J., Gold J., Human
Resource Management, Theory and Practice,
Palgrave, 2003