Role Of Human Resource Professionals Research Articles

Role of Human Resource Professionals in Implementation of CSR Projects: Some Observations

Human resource professionals have a major role to play to help a company achieve its corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives. They have the tools and the opportunity to leverage employee commitment to, and engagement in, the firm’s CSR strategy. Although HRM oversees employee-related aspects, CSR helped to develop socially responsible practices. CSR inspired HRM, key HR aspects, namely health–well-being, gender equality–diversity, work–life balance and training–development can be addressed from the CSR perspective. CSR can contribute to long term, sustainable HR solutions. Integrating CSR and HRM promotes responsible people practices. There is emerging evidence that if effectively implemented, CSR can have considerable impact in motivating, developing and retaining staff. People prefer to work for companies that make a difference; corporate values, infused with CSR, generate conscience. A strong employer brand aligned with employee values and concerns is becoming recognised as one of the best ways of retaining talent with employees proud to work for a business that is highly regarded. As management plays an important role in understanding and delivering on key CSR objectives, it is vital to make CSR an integral part of management training programmes. As CSR increasingly becomes part of the business agenda in future, it will become a natural agenda for the HR practitioner.

Conformer or colluder? The human resource professional’s contribution to toxic leadership

Orientation: There is a growing body of knowledge on the role of human resource (HR) professionals in workplace bullying, but their role in perpetuating a toxic leadership culture in organisations remains unscrutinised. Human resource professionals are uniquely positioned to influence toxic leadership styles as they are required to cultivate and sustain the organisational leadership culture.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to identify gaps in HR practices that could contribute to toxic leadership in organisations.Motivation of the study: The inherent role conflict of the HR professional and competing demands from organisational stakeholders are likely to create toxic outcomes.Research approach/design and method: A phenomenological study was carried out at a South African organisation to gain insight into the practices of HR professionals. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and the key findings of the study were identified through a thematic analysis.Main findings: Three themes emerged that contribute to creating gaps in HR practices that support toxic leadership: toxic HR practices, challenges faced by HR professionals and business results at any cost.Practical/managerial implications: The findings suggest a need to alleviate the inherent role conflict experienced by HR professionals, so that their contributions to toxic leadership are minimised.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the literature on toxic leadership by expounding on the role of the human resources professionals (HRP) and gaps in their practices that contribute to toxic leadership. Suggested guidelines and recommendations are offered to address the gaps in HR practices.

The experiences of human resource professionals in managing career development of an ageing workforce: a narrative thematic analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the experience of human resource (HR) professionals in managing career development for older workers. It focuses on the influence of personal, social and organisational experiences of HR professionals on (1) their approach to career development of older workers and (2) their organisation's career development practices for older workers.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through individual semi-structured interviews with 14 HR professionals from large organisations with at least half of their workforce aged 45 and above. The transcripts were analysed thematically, with the coding process informed by Ricoeur's theory of interpretation.FindingsThree main themes emerged within the HR professionals' narratives. They identified with (1) the protagonist mindset in career development stories, (2) the enabling enforcer of individualised career development practices and (3) the agent for change in career development practices.Practical implicationsThis study shows that a narrative thematic analysis can be used to explore how the experiences of HR professionals can affect the design and implementation of career development strategies for this cohort of workers. Further, recruiting HR professionals with a protagonist mindset can generate organisational practices inclusive of older workers.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to focus on the role of HR professionals in managing career development practices for older workers and the influence of supportive managers on their attitudes and actions with older workers.

Six Myths of Human Resource Management

Introduction: For decades the Human Resource Management (HRM) strategic role has been viewed as limited in its effectiveness. Human Resource Professionals (HRPs) have been criticized for their lack of formal preparation – when that preparation even exists. According to Gomez-Mejia (2015) and colleagues, fewer than one-third of all HRPs have any academic preparation in HRM and most lack an understanding of the legal, professional, and technical principles of their profession.Objective: The purpose of this paper is to focus on six myths about HRM and the role of HRPs that are frequently held by Top Management Team (TMT) members, business practitioners, and even many HRPs. The failure of so many HRPs and TMTs to recognize the fallacies in these myths is a cause of organizational dysfunction and undermines the ability of HRPs to be ethical stewards who serve and protect the best interests of their organizations.Methods: The paper begins by briefly identifying seven key strategic functions of HRM in distinguishing the HRPs’ staff role in successful organizations.Results: We describe the context of today’s challenging work environment in which HRPs perform their labors and identify six myths that plague the HRM profession and undermine the effectiveness of many modern organizations.Conclusions: We conclude the paper with a challenge to TMT members and HRPs to raise the bar and increase the accountability of those who deliver HRM services within their organizations.

The role of human resource professionals (HRPs) in managing workplace bullying: perspectives from HRPs and employee representatives in Australia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the perspectives of human resource professionals (HRPs) and employee representatives (ERs) on the role of HRPs in managing workplace bullying.Design/methodology/approachIndividual interviews were conducted with 12 HRPs and five ERs from a wide range of industries. Interview questions were open-ended and sought to gain insight on the views of the individual interviewees.FindingsThe findings address the role of HRPs in bullying scenarios and in the prevention of bullying. Regarding the role of HRPs in bullying, the responses of the participants suggest confusion and ambiguity, with a variety of roles being described ranging from a support-based role through to a protector of management. The participants also noted the importance of the HRP task of policy development, while a distrust of HRPs in bullying scenarios was mentioned. Regarding the effective management and prevention of bullying, the findings demonstrate that HRPs are viewed as having a central role through their particular responsibilities of creating and nurturing a positive organisational culture, as well as through engaging employees in the development of anti-bullying policies.Practical implicationsHRPs believe that they can contribute significantly to reducing workplace bullying through organisational culture (including educating staff and as role models of behaviour) and by engaging staff in the design of anti-bullying policies.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on workplace bullying by examining within the Australian context the perspectives of HRPs and ERs on how HRPs can prevent and manage workplace bullying.

Industry 4.0: The role of human resource professionals

Orientation: Organisations are at the forefront of industry 4.0 and employees are witnessing the changes it brings. Research purpose: The objective of this study was to explore the role of human resource (HR) professionals in navigating industry 4.0. Motivation for the study: There is scant scientific research on the role of HR professionals in industry 4.0 within the South African context, although there are workshops and seminars in the field. Research approach/design and method: A qualitative research approach is used within an interpretivist research paradigm. We interviewed a purposive sample of 12 HR professionals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture perceptions of HR professionals, and a thematic analysis was used to extract themes. Main findings: Seven prominent themes emerged revealing that HR professionals need to assume roles as strategic business partners and talent managers, necessitating HR competencies such as creative innovator, change agent, strategic partner and people enablement to take advantage of the opportunities of industry 4.0 and mitigate the associated challenges. Practical/managerial implications: HR professionals can use the findings as a basis for considering their role in industry 4.0. We propose a preliminary holistic model for navigating industry 4.0. Future researchers may use this study as a point of departure within the South African context. Contribution/value-add: There is limited research on this topic matter and is a response to this. The study makes an important practical and scientific contribution to understanding the role of HR professionals as it affirms their function has become an essential part of industry 4.0.

Stress Management in the Modern Workplace and the Role of Human Resource Professionals

Due to the potentially negative impact on the employees’ well-being and productivity, the stress in the workplace becomes one of the most difficult problems for the enterprise’s successful operation. The frequency of its manifestations in the workplace is constantly increasing. These issues are especially relevant in the Covid-19 era when HR managers constantly have to form and implement policies to protect the employees’ mental health and general working conditions. It creates the preconditions to identify the factors underlying the occurrence of stress and employees’ potential behavioral responses. The aim of this study is to analyze and evaluate certain aspects of stress in the workplace. Based on the systematization of the results from previous research and interviews with five experienced heads and managers of Vietnamese companies, the article identifies and classifies common reasons, signs, symptoms, and consequences of workers’ stress. The classification of stress in the workplace into three categories (acute stress, episodic acute and chronic stress) forms the basis for identifying the source of stress as a result of the manifestation of factors which differ from the usual ones for the worker, taking into account their external and internal peculiarities. The article proposes an approach based on a combination of psychological, physiological, and autonomic methods to measure stress. It takes into account its cognitive, physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms to increase the accuracy for evaluating the practical application of stress minimization strategy. The paper examines the relationship between individual, organizational and financial effects of stress. It identifies four problems faced by staff in the workplace: identifying the reasons for stress, identifying ways to minimize it, resolving conflict, and developing proposals and recommendations for reducing stress. According to the analysis of five interviews with experienced managers from Vietnamese companies, there are recommendations on how to form and implement stress management strategies for human resource managers. Primary, secondary and tertiary approaches to workplace stress reduction are proposed based on managers’ individual and organizational interventions focused on different goals. Thus, human resource managers play an essential role in the development of stress management strategies to facilitate the interactive internal exchange of information and to establish a balanced personnel structure of the organization. Keywords: Eustress, Distress, Stress, Stress Management, Workplace.

Advancing knowledge on human resource management in family firms: An introduction and integrative framework

Over the last decades, human resource management has received increasing attention in family business scholarship. However, works on human resource management in the context of family firms remain relatively low as compared to the more general body of studies on human resource management. This article introduces our special issue of the German Journal of Human Resource Management, which discusses facets of how family firms configure human resource management and set human resource practices. We first give a brief overview on the conceptual and empirical research that relates to and informs human resource management within family firms, resulting in a human resource system framework. We then discuss ideas for future human resource management research, namely, the influence of the owning family on human resource orientation, non-family employees as human resource recipients and the role of human resource professionals in delivering human resource management. Furthermore, we call for making psychological foundations part of the human resource management scholarship agenda. There is still work to be done before human resource management can find its ‘place in the sun’ in the family business community. Hence, this special issue contributes to developing family business human resource management scholarship further by offering the human resource system framework, by suggesting directions for future research and by advancing our conceptual and empirical understanding of human resource management in the context of family firms.

Engaging Employee Perception for Effective Corporate Social Responsibility: Role of Human Resource Professionals

India is the first country in the world to mandate corporate social responsibility (CSR). The Government of India implemented new CSR guidelines requiring companies to spend 2 per cent of their net profit on social development. The current research intends to identify the role of human resource (HR) in institutionalizing CSR and to identify the association between employee perception towards CSR and the role of HR. The research results prove that it is apt that Indian organizations are high on CSR activities and that even employees are undertaking such activities but the formal policies and procedures are not formulated by HR department to involve the employees in CSR activities. HR needs to align the CSR and HR policies, so that the employees, who are the biggest stakeholders, get involved in internal as well as external CSR activities.

Proactive and Reactive Role of Human Resource Professionals in an Aftershock Management

Disasters do not leave a business unaffected. When it is natural disaster, the effects are felt at various phases of life. Organisations, work, employee life and their psychological balance all get affected by natural disasters. The impacts of natural disasters like earthquake, hurricane, and tsunami and similar others can be severely damaging to a region, businesses, economy and people. Damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure on top of the damage to lives can continue for over quite a period of time. The important task here remains for businesses to have continuity plans to offer information on how to survive back as a resilient organisation, and their operations will be gradually restored. A successful response is the outcome of an inclusive corporate readiness and a well-structured disaster management programme that creates an overarching decision-making framework that orchestrates and supports an organisation's various incident and site-level response activities. Here, the role of human resource (HR) is immense. HR leaders have a strategic role and have to shoulder the accountability to make sure that their organisations are alert of internal vulnerabilities on the human side to different types of crises and to ensure their disaster management plan takes care of all potential risks and concerns. HR needs to make sure that the human capital is taken care of, given support in all disaster management and business continuity plans. HR has to offer real value protection or enrichment through disaster communication plans, disaster resource planning, and help with training in safety and security, manage internal talent and has relevant succession planning. The present conceptual paper discusses the role of HR in managing the risks, planning for the future, immediate responses to the victims and how they can extend the support to the employees and sail through smoothly in the disaster.

People Management – The Emerging Dimensions

The business world has become more global and competitive and organizations are looking forward to seek new means to combat fierce competition, in order to bring the organization to a bright future. Competition in the market is tough and company that can win the war is one that provides better services and products to the customer. Cut throat competition has made employers realize that employees are the only source of competitive advantage. Much attention has been directed to provide quality service and products. This can be achieved through effective utilization of the human resources. The present review paper is an attempt to critically examine how the human resources function has changed over the years in order to cope with the changing market scenario and how has role of human resource professionals being transformed.

English

Strategic sustainability is associated with significant business benefits as well as positive environmental impacts, yet many organizations fail to recognize the potential of this approach, and neglect the factors necessary for its successful implementation. This article recommends an art and science based approach to strategic sustainability and discusses the important role of Human Resource professionals in contributing to the success of this approach. A number of key areas of responsibility for the HR department in relation to strategic sustainability are discussed and the importance of a more proactive approach on the part of HR professionals is noted. Harold Schroeder Schroeder & Schroeder Inc. harold@schroeder-inc.com

HR's role in building relationship networks

Executive Overview For human resource management (HRM) to achieve its potential as a crucial source of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy, the role of human resource professionals in nurturing relationships will need to be redefined and expanded.1 Conventional human resource (HR) activities concentrate on individual-to-individual relationships within a firm and on overcoming barriers to effective interactions across workgroups. While effective results in these arenas are necessary, they are no longer sufficient. This article explains how HR professionals can become the driving force for building the kinds of relationships that turn social capital into competitive advantage. Relationships are the foundation of organizational capabilities that are an important source of sustained competitive advantage because they capitalize on individual differences and are relatively immobile since they are embedded within a firm's culture.

Family leave policies and devolution to the line

Using evidence drawn from case studies in four companies in the Scottish financial sector, this paper examines how both statutory and company family leave policies are operated by line managers. This paper considers the extent of line managers’ knowledge of statutory and company family leave policies and finds that their knowledge, particularly of statutory measures, is often wanting. In exploring the reasons for this situation, training on statutory and company family leave policies was found to be extremely limited and although support from human resource professionals was provided, line managers only referred to them in exceptional circumstances. This situation has clear implications both for consistency of operation of these policies and for the role of human resource professionals in ensuring that statutory and company provisions are effectively put into practice.

Managing transformational change: the role of human resource professionals

In the past decade human resource management issues featured prominently in debates over the competitiveness and human resource professionals were expected to ascend to positions of greater influence in corporate strategy making and implementation. Despite numerous calls for a paradigm shift towards a more ‘strategic’ focus for human resource management research, developments in both practice and research fell far short of expectations. Thus, the process of transforming human resource policy into a strategic asset for employees, individual firms or the American economy is not yet complete. The paper suggests that the ‘strategic’ human resource management models of the 1980s were too limited and reactive in character because they depended so heavily on the values, strategies and support of top executives and line managers. A model capable of achieving sustained and transformational change needs to incorporate more active roles of other stakeholders in the employment relationship, including government, empl...