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Introduction It is a truism to claim that people are an organisational resource - indeed, for some organisations, they are the key resource, without which the organisation would be unable to deliver any meaningful product or service to its customers. Like any resource, however, people may be used wastefully: they may be employed at well below their potential, performing tasks which do not stretch their capabilities and which are ultimately alienating in their psychological impact on the employees involved. Alternatively, people may be managed and led in ways which inspire them to be highly motivated and to demonstrate long-term commitment to both their roles and the organisation which employs them. When this is achieved, the performance of its people becomes a major differentiator for the organisation and a source of long-term competitive strength. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT is about the managerial and leadership processes which enable people to give of their best in today’s turbulent working scenarios. To that end, the syllabus content is less concerned with the academic study of human and organisational behaviour, but concentrates more on the development of effective, pragmatic, yet innovative solutions to the issues surrounding the need to maximise people’s productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Against this conceptual background, the aims for the subject are as follows: Aims To develop the student’s knowledge and understanding of: 1. Individual differences, especially in such fields as learning, personality, motivation and attitudes, with particular reference to the relevance of such differences for recruitment, selection, deployment, development, and employee performance in an organisational setting. 2. The changing nature of the ‘psychological contract’ between organisations and their employees, together with the implications for employability, flexible working, commitment, and managerial leadership. 3. Each major dimension of human resource management in practice, i.e., human resource planning, recruitment, selection, induction, training/development, reward systems, and people review/appraisal. 4. Techniques for effective communication in all work-related situations, i.e., with subordinates and with seniors, through collective representational procedures, and with teams. Programme Content and Learning Objectives Note that all the following objectives are concerned principally with practical application rather than academic theory. Students will be expected to familiarise themselves with all relevant underpinning theories, but the emphasis in the tuition process and in the examination will concentrate on specific techniques for resolving human resource issues and for improving people performance across all types of organisation. After completing the programme students should be able to: 1. Differentiate the fundamental characteristics of people, with particular regard to such factors as culture, gender, ethnicity, personality, attitudes, and motivation, and assess the implications of such differences for the purposes of effective human resource management. 2. Clarify the mechanisms for individual and organisational learning, including ways of enhancing the effectiveness of deliberate learning processes and of overcoming the barriers to productive learning, again with a focus on the significance of learning from the viewpoint of enhancing organisational effectiveness. 3. Recognise the significance of the emergent ‘psychological contract’ in terms of new employer expectations about ‘added value’, employability, and the factors which will continue to influence the nature of employment in the vast majority of organisations. 4. Apply alternative systems of flexible working to meet fluctuating corporate needs. 5. Accept the obligations of ethicality governing the actions of managers, employees, and corporate entities. 6. Acknowledge the differences between ‘management’ and ‘leadership’ against a background in which organisations are moving from a focus on compliance to a desire for commitment, and recommend the installation of appropriate mechanisms for generating employee commitment in all types of corporate setting. 7. Maximise individual and collective employee performance, in specific organisational, functional, departmental or managerial scenarios, through effective motivation, job design, reward/recognition processes, and ‘performance management’. 8. Handle difficult people-management situations through systematic grievance-handling mechanisms, directive or non-directive counselling, coaching, and ultimately by means of disciplinary action and dismissal. 9. Apply each of the procedures and skills associated with the major arenas for personnel management, viz., human resource planning, recruitment, selection, induction, training/development, reward /recognition, review/appraisal, employee relations, welfare, health and safety responsibilities, discipline, and grievance-handling, in both remedial and continuous-improvement circumstances. (Several of these themes are mentioned elsewhere in the syllabus, but are repeated here in order to ensure completeness.) 10. Communicate effectively in all relevant organisational situations, i.e., meetings, presentations, and negotiating. Method of Assessment: By written examination. The pass mark is 40%. Time allowed 3 hours The question paper will contain: Eight questions of which four must be answered. All questions carry 25 marks. |
