ROLE OF

HRM
 The role of HRM is to plan, develop and administer
policies and programs designed to make optimum
use of an organizations human resources.
It is that part of management which is concerned
with the people at work and with their relationship
within enterprises.
Its objectives are:
(a) effective utilization of human resources,
(b) desirable working relationships among all
members of the organizations, and
(c) maximum individual development.
Human resources function as primarily
administrative and professional. HR staff focused
on administering benefits and other payroll and
operational functions and didn’t think of
themselves as playing a part in the firm’s overall
strategy.
The primary responsibilities of Human
Resource managers are:
 To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate
culture, plans and policies.
 To act as an internal change agent and
consultant
 To initiate change and act as an expert and
facilitator
 To actively involve in company’s strategy
formulation
 To keep communication line open between the
HRD function and individuals and groups both within
and outside the organization
 To identify and evolve HRD strategies in
consonance with overall business strategy.
 To facilitate the development of various
organizational teams and their working relationship
with other teams and individuals
 To try and relate people and work so that the organization
objectives are achieved efficiently and effectively.
 To diagnose problems and determine appropriate solution
particularly in the human resource areas.
 To provide co-ordination and support services for the
delivery of HRD programmes and services
 To evaluate the impact of an HRD intervention or to
conduct research so as to identify, develop or test how HRD
In general has improved individual and organizational
performance.
 Different management gurus have deliberated different
roles for the HR manager based on the major
responsibilities that they full fill in the organization.
Few of the commonly accepted models are enumerated
below
According to Dave Ulrich HR play’s four key roles.
1. Strategic Partner Role-turning strategy into
results by building organizations that create
value;
2. Change Agent Role- making change happen, and
in particular, help it happen fast
3. Employees Champion Role—managing the talent
or the intellectual capital within a firm
4. Administrative Role—trying to get things to
happen better, faster and cheaper.
ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

HRM is concerned with the people

dimension in management. Since every
organization is made up of people, acquiring their
services, developing their skills, motivating them to
high levels of performance and ensuring that they
continue to maintain their commitment to the
organization are essential for achieving
organizational objectives. This is true regardless of
the type of organization, government, business,
education, health, recreation or social action.
The role of human resource management can
be categorised into the following heads:
A. Developmental Role of Human Resource Management
B. Changing Role of Human Resource Management
C. Functional Role of Human Resource Management in Areas Like:-
1. Marketing
2. Finance
3. Production & Operation and
4. Information Technology
D. Role of Human Resource Management in Strategic Man­agement:-
1. Providing Purposeful Direction
2. Focus on Core Competency
3. Facilitation of Change
4. Creating Competitive Advantage
 5. Management of Workplace (Workforce)Diversity
6. Managing Executive Information Systems (EIS)
7. Motivational Approaches
8. Empowerment of Human Resources
9. Total Quality Management (TQM)
10. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and
11. Quality Circles.
E. Role of Human Resource Management in Strategic
Management Process:-
1. At Strategy Formulation Level
2. At Strategy Implementation Level and
3. At Strategic Control Level.
F. Welfare Role of Human Resource Management
G. Future Role of Human Resource
Management in India:-
1. Change in the Nature of Work
2. Widening Scope of HR Activities
3. Greater Emphasis on HRIS
4. Change in Labour-Market Conditions
5. Increasing Importance of High Performance Work
Systems (HPWS) and
6. Growing Need for Measurement Tools to Evaluate HR
Programmes.
A . Developmental Role of Human Resource Management
In the fast-changing, challenging and competitive environment today,
there are great many challenges to HRM for the growth, development,
expansion and progress of organizations in the world of work.
In the organizational context, HRD is a process by which the
employees of an organization are helped, in a continuous planned
way to-
i. Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions
associated with their present or expected future roles
ii. Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and
exploit their inner potentials for their own and/or organizational
development purposes
iii. Develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate
relationships, team-work, and collaboration among subunits are strong
and contribute to professional well-being, motivation and pride of
employees.
The developmental role of HRM, in short, focuses on healthy development
of human resources and enhancement of human dignity and growth.
This essentially means creating employee satisfaction and developing
B .Changing Role of HRM
HR departments very initially were called as payroll
departments. Then renamed as staff management, followed
by another metamorphosis to personnel and then to HRM
People in different kinds of businesses have to adapt
and change in response to emerging trends. Here training
plays a crucial role.
Employees (the people component) should be courteous,
knowledgeable, helpful and passionate for serving
customers, tech savvy, and presentable.
For instance, the staff of any fashion retailer should be
dressed in such a way that it should reflect the fashion level
of the merchandise for sale in the store.
C. 4 Functional Roles in Areas Like: Marketing, Finance,
Production & Operation and IT
Human resource management’s interaction with various
functional areas can be discussed as under:
Role # 1. Marketing and Human Resource Management:
Human Resource Management (HRM) is an integrative
general management comprises the act of identifying the
organisation’s demand for human resources with particular
skills and abilities. As regards the introduction of the new
products or services, HRM department is expected to know
about it.
Once the new products or services are introduced,
marketing has the responsibility to inform the HRM department
regularly and sufficiently. The information for HRM
department should be concerned with the new skills and
experience needed for the new workers at present. Therefore,
HRM department should make a well strategic plan in training,
recruitment and selection of new staff.
Role # 2. Finance and Human Resource Management:
All organisations required to accurately plan,
monitor and control their finances if they want to achieve
success as well as maintaining it progressively. To do this
properly, they need employees who have a clear knowledge
and understanding of accounting and finance, along with a
good general business background.
The personnel department has to work with the
finance manager while performing the following functions
evaluating different schemes of training programmes,
employee’s welfare, economy in manpower,
computerisation, incentive’s schemes, revision of pay
scales, etc.
Role # 3. Production and Operations and Human Resource
Management:
Production and operations management is related to the
functions like scoping, planning, direction and control of
facilities, processes and people required to transform resources
into products and services.
The principles of production and operations management
are used in every industry and every environment. All
organisations carry out the functions of planning, scheduling,
equipment operation, quality control and human resource
management.
The Human Resources has to assure that people within the
firm possess not only have the needed skills but also the
essential attitudes. The production function has to interact with
the HR function on this count. Each function requires to be at
tuned to other function within the firm. The modern business
world has necessitated a high level of integration within
organisations.
Role # 4. IT and Human Resource Management:
HR department got to deal with the following:
(i) Information Management Practices:
It shows the organisational capabilities to manage the
entire information lifecycle, i.e., sensing, collecting,
organising, processing and maintaining information.
(ii) Information Behaviours/Values (IBV):
IBV demonstrates the organisational capabilities to
promote behaviours and values that facilitate the effective use
of information. HR managers have to work in close
coordination with the IT head for creating awareness about
the Information Management Practices.
The main challenge is to define and communicate the
Information Behaviours/Values expected from the employees.
Moreover, HR managers have to initiate an organisational
culture building exercise for internalisation and adoption of
the desired values.
D. In Strategic Man­agement:
HRM is in a unique position to provide competitive
intelligence that can be useful in strategic planning
process. An excellent strategy will fail to achieve business
goals in the absence of competent and motivated workforce.
The prominent areas where the human resources
management play strategic role are discussed below:
Role # 1. Providing Purposeful Direction:
The human resource manager must be able to lead
people and the organisation towards the desired direction
involving people right from the beginning. Objectives are
specific aims which must be in line with the mission of the
organisation and all the actions of each person must be
consistent with the objectives defined.
Role # 2. Focus on Core Competency:
A core competence is a unique strength of an
organisation which may not be shared by others. This may
be in the form of human resources marketing capability or
technological capability. It needs creative, courageous and
dynamic leadership having faith in the organisation’s
human resources
Role # 3. Facilitation of Change:
Human resource professionals will have to play an
active role as change agents as any program of
organisational change and development involves human
resource issues. They have to persuade, mobiles and
negotiate people for change. For this purpose human
resource professionals require diagnostic and behavioural
skills. HR mangers will have to devote more time to
promote changes than to maintain the status quo.
Role # 4. Creating Competitive Advantage:
In today’s globalised market place, maintaining a
competitive advantage is the foremost goal of any business
organisation.
There are two important ways a business can achieve a
competitive advantage
the first is cost leadership which means the firm aims to
become the low cost leader in the industry.
The second competitive strategy is differentiation under
which the firm seeks to be unique in the industry in terms of
dimensions that are widely valued by the customers.
Putting these strategies into effect carries a heavy
premium on having committed and competent workforce.
Such a workforce would enable the organisation to compete
on the basis of market responsiveness, product and service
quality, differentiated products and technological innovation.
Role # 5. The Management of Workplace (Workforce)
Diversity:
In order to effectively manage workplace
diversity, an HR manager needs to change his perspective
from an ethnocentric view (“our way is the best way”) to a
culturally relative perspective (“Let’s take the best of a
variety of ways”). This shift in philosophy has to be
ingrained in the managerial framework of the HR Manger in
his/her planning, organising, leading and controlling of
organisational resources.
There are several best practices that a HR manager can
adopt in ensuring effective management of workplace
diversity in order to attain organisational goals.
They are:
(i) Planning a Mentoring Program:
The purpose of a Diversity Mentoring program seeks to
encourage members to move beyond their own cultural
frame of reference to recognise and take full advantage
of the productivity potential inherent in a diverse
population.
(ii) Organising Talents Strategically:
As more & more companies are going global in
their market expansions either physically or virtually
(for example, E-commerce related companies), There is
a necessity to employ diverse talents to understand the
various niches of the market.
(iii) Leading the Talk:
An HR manager needs to advocate a diverse workforce
by making diversity evident at all organisational levels.
He/She must also show a high level of commitment and be
able to resolve issues of workplace diversity in an ethical
and responsible manner.
(iv) Control and Measure Results:
An HR Manager must develop appropriate measuring
tools to measure the impact of diversity initiatives at the
organisation through organisation, wide feedback surveys
and other methods.
Role # 6. Managing Executive Information Systems
(ElS):
Executive Information system (EIS) is the most
common term used for the unified collection of
computer hardware and software that track the essential
data of a business’ daily performance and present it to
the managers as an aid to their planning & decision-
making.
When managing an Executive Information system,
a HR manager must first find out exactly what
information decision-makers would like to have
available in the field of human Resources
Role # 7. Motivational Approaches:
In our changing workplace and competitive
market environments, motivated employees and their
contributions are the necessary currency for an
organisation’s survival and success. Motivational
factors in an organizational context include working
environment, job characteristics, and appropriate
organisational reward system and so on.
Role # 8. Empowerment of Human Resources:
The process of empowering involves giving
more power to those who, at present have little control
over what they do and little ability to influence the
decisions being made around them.
 The basic goals of empowerment are that all people
should:
 (i) Understand and feel good about themselves,
 (ii) Relate to each other with empathy and respect,
 (iii) Give voluntary agreement to the rules and structures
that govern their lives, and
 (iv) Have sufficient resources (of knowledge, training,
authority, time, tools, support, money etc.,) to be able to
contribute all the value they can to their chosen roles.
Role # 9. Total Quality Management (TQM):
TQM is a dynamic process involving all levels in an
organisation to promote never ending improvement in the
efficiency and effectiveness of all elements of a business.
The goal of TQM is to mobilise the entire workforce in
pursuits of specific company goals with the primary aim of
achieving customer satisfaction with regard to quality, price,
and delivery and after sale service.
 TQM is a philosophy of the entire organisation. It embodies
development of a companywide culture for quality. TQM is
nothing but an understanding and performance of role by
each & every individual in the pursuit of quality
improvement. A positive attitude towards customer and
constant enhancement of quality must be ingrained in the
minds of employees.
Role # 10. Business Process Reengineering (BPR):
Reengineering denotes the radical redesign of
organisational processes to achieve major improvements in
terms of cost, time and provision of services. It is also
known as Business Process Reengineering (BPR).
Reengineering implies that the management should start
from scratch to redesign in the organisation around its most
important processes rather than beginning with its current
design and making incremental changes. It assumes that if a
company had no existing structure, departments, jobs, rules
or established ways of doing things, re-engineering would
design the organisation as it should be for future success.
Role # 11. Quality Circles:
A quality circle is a small group of employees from the
same work area which meets regularly to identify
analyses and solve quality and other work related
problems.
The basic objectives of quality circles are as under:
(i) To contribute to the improvement and development of
the organisation,
(ii) To develop respect for human relations and induce job
satisfaction,
(iii) To deploy human capabilities to the fullest extent and
draw out their infinite potential.
E . In Strategic Management Process
Human resource management plays significant role at all steps of
strategic management process- strategy formulation, strategy
implementation, and strategic control .
Role # 1. At Strategy Formulation Level:
At strategy formulation level, human resource management may play
role in two forms.
First, head of HR department may act as a functional director representing HR
function at the level of Board of Directors or top management committee. In
this way, HR head may directly participate in decision making at the highest
level of the organization where strategic decisions are made.

Second, in organizations where such an arrangement does not exist (majority of

the organizations fall in this category), generally, arrangement is made to
take the view of HR head about the likely impact of a new strategic move on
human resources.
This view is used as one of the inputs in strategic decision making. For
example, in most of the large organizations, HR department provides inputs
about employee-related issues which are used in objective setting. Thus,
organizational objectives may be reshaped to reflect employee-related issues.
Role # 2. At Strategy Implementation Level:
Role of human resource management is quite critical at strategy
implementation level as it is the only agency which aims at providing
right people at right time throughout the organization. Role of HR
professionals in strategy implementation is relevant at two levels-
behavioural implementation and functional implementation.
 At behavioural implementation level, they can play lead role in
different aspects of behavioural implementation by undertaking suitable
organization development programmes that aim at bringing suitable
changes in leadership styles, development of high- performing
organizational culture, and overcoming the dysfunctional aspect of
organizational politics.
 At functional implementation level, HR professionals may formulate
coherent HR strategies and policies. Implementation of these strategies
and policies effectively contributes positively to strategy
implementation.
Thus, HR professionals may enhance organizational capability
to implement strategy by undertaking all human resource actions as per
requirements of the strategy.
Role # 3. At Strategic Control Level:
At strategic control level, the issues relevant to HRM are
as follows:
i. Is HR system adequate in the light of requirements of
corporate or business strategy?
ii. Will it work effectively even if there is any discrete change
in corporate or business strategy?
iii. Does HR system contribute to the organization in terms of
return on investment?
Thus, suitable corrective measures may be taken to
ensure that HRM plays its right role in corporate strategic
management.
F. Welfare Role of HRM
The welfare actions an HRM function might take are:
i. Helping employees solve personal problems- It may be common
sympathetic advice In other situations it might take the form of a
transfer, a change in working hours or a modification of the job.
At its most sophisticated level the help might take the form of an
employee assistance programme (EAP).
In an employee assistance programme the workers are
given the telephone number or other contact details of a
counselling service they can consult if they have personal
problems.. An EAP is usually able to help employees who have
problems involving debt, marital and family relationships, a poor
work-life balance and drugs.
ii. Help employees’ careers – Many HR functions try to structure
jobs in their organisation into patterns that provide careers for
their employees. They may also offer training that has no direct or
immediate relevance to an employee’s current job but which will
enhance his or her employability
iii. When an employee encounters a serious and acute crisis
such as illness or bereave­ment(loss of someone who are close
to us), it is usually the HR function that instigates and co-
ordinates the organisation’s compassionate response such as
arranging extra leave or sending condolences..
iv. The HR function usually makes an above average
contribution to the social life of an organisation. It often
manages an organisation’s sports and social clubs. Generally,
it also organises social events, parties and celebrations.
Furthermore the HR function will usually have responsibility
for the organisation’s catering services.
All of these contributions are usually considered peripheral
activities but their sum total improves the quality of people’s
working lives.
G . Future Role of HRM in India
Role # 1. Change in the Nature of Work:
Technological developments are changing the very
nature of work. Due to technological advancements, even
traditional jobs have become technologically challenging. These
changes require the employment of more educated and more
skilled workers in these jobs. Further, the service sector, which
is fast emerging as the major provider of employment in our
country, requires the use of knowledge workers.
Similarly, due to rapid social transformation, an
enhanced access to education and increased labour mobility, the
workforce profile of the country has changed dramatically and
organizations now represent several heterogeneous groups. This
is a direct challenge for the HR managers as they now have to
deal with culturally and racially diverse work groups.
 Many firms are now compelled to initiate new gender –
specific and target – based HR policies to serve the interests of
different sections of the employees.
Example :
The success of IBM’s HR policies meant for women
and the differently abled is worth mentioning. IBM recognised
the variety in its work force and made a commitment to
provide an equal work place to individuals who are differently
abled and need special care.
IBM organises several celebrations such as – the International
Women’s Day, Take our kids to Work Day, the Women
Leadership Conference and the World Disability Day.
In addition, it has launched two new child-care centres, a
home-care project and Exploring Interests in Technology and
Engineering (EXITE) camps for middle-school girls to make a
difference in the world through mathematics, science and
technology.
Role # 2. Widening Scope of HR Activities:

Globalisation and deregulations have deeply affected

the functioning of traditional HRM. Organizations, in their
pursuit of new markets and grater cost- effectiveness,
extend their sales, production facilities, and supporting
services to new destinations in several countries around the
world.
HR managers must have adequate dynamism and action
plans to help these organizations successfully integrate their
global HR operations.
They must also ensure effective coordination amongst
and control over the labour forces working in different
countries.
Role # 3. Greater Emphasis on HRIS:
The organizations of the future will be large due to
world – wide mergers and acquisitions. The sheer size of
an organization may compel the HR department to
computerise its HR operations like recruitment, training,
appraising and pay-roll preparations.
Thus, large companies may require an integrated
Human Resource Information System (HRIS) for
effectively coordinating their different HR operations.
HRIS actually means, “interrelated components working
together to collects, process, store and disseminate
information to support decision-making, coordination,
control, analysis and visualisation of an organization’s
HRM activities”.
Role # 4. Change in Labour-Market Conditions:
Uneven economic development has resulted in the large scale
unemployment of unskilled and under-skilled persons on one side and a
severe shortage of competent people on the other.
This dichotomy may compel HR managers to reduce their focus on the
short-tern needs of the organization and to concentrate more on fulfilling
the long-term capability requirements such as – skill development and
knowledge formation amongst its existing workforce.
For example, the skill development efforts at Infosys. As part of its HR
strategy, Infosys organises the “Campus Connect” programme to
improve the industry-readiness of students while they pursue a regular
education.
-It has partnered with 250 colleges in India and four universities in China,
and helped 188 faculty members with specialised courses.
-Further, to ensure availability of skills in line with their needs, it makes
sure that the new employees undergo training for about 15 weeks before
being deployed on engagements.
-To upgrade the skills of its staff across the board, it offers ‘competency
certification programme’, which is aimed at certifying its employees in
various industry domains, technologies, and project management
processes. The certifications are mandatory for the future growth of
Role # 5. Increasing Importance of High Performance Work
Systems (HPWS):
Globalisation is bringing about a tremendous change in
the size, structure, composition, and style of functioning of
organizations so as to meet an intensified global competition. This
in turn puts increased pressure on an organization to improve its
employees’ productivity. Thus, HR managers, with the help of
dynamic HR policies, should develop HPWS that maximises the
competencies, commitment and abilities of the firm’s
employees.
Example :Tata Business Support Service’s is one of the best
examples of developing and maintaining a successful HPWS.
The elements included in the Tata Business Support Services
HPWS are multiple recruitment methods to source best talents at
all levels, high performance orientation and performance linked
rewards, continuous learning and development opportunities for
employees, continuous employee engagement initiatives, attention
on retention and not on attrition, and, lastly, ensuring employees’
strict adherence to the Tata code of conduct.
 Role # 6. Growing Need for Measurement Tools to
Evaluate HR Programmes:
The inherent weakness of HRM is the absence of
reliable and effective yardsticks(standards) for measuring
the performance of HR programmes. The top management
expects HR managers to express their plans and
performance in quantifiable terms.
Thus, there is an urgent need for HR managers to
provide concrete evidence that their department is
contributing in a significant and constructive way in the
accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives.
HR managers’ focus in the future will be on the
development, and introduction of reliable and accurate
HR tools to measure the efficiency of HR functions.
 ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER
Human Resources Manager plays a vital role in the
modern organisation. He plays various strategic roles at
different levels in the organisation. The roles of the HR
Manager include roles of conscience, of a counsellor, a
mediator, a company spokesman, a problem solver and
a change agent.
(i) The Conscience Role: The conscience role is that of a
humanitarian who reminds the management of its
morals and obligations to its employees.
(ii) The Counsellor: Employees who are dissatisfied with
the present job approach the HR manager for
counselling. In addition, employees facing various
problems like marital, health, children
education/marriage, mental, physical and career also
approach the HR managers. The HR Manager counsels
and consults the employees and offers suggestions to
solve/overcome the problems.
(iii) The Mediator: As a mediator, the HR manager
plays the role of a peace-maker. He settles the
disputes between employees and the
management. He acts as a liaison and
communication link between both of them
(iv) The Spokesman: He is a frequent spokesman
for or representative of the company.
(v) The Problem-solver: He acts as a problem
solver with respect to the issues that involve
human resources management and overall long
range organisational planning.
(vi) The Change Agent: He acts as a change agent
and introduces changes in various existing
programmes