Understanding the Difference Between HR Management and HR Development: Why It Matters for Your Organization

Hi buddies!

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations.

Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records, and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have—and are aware of—personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.

Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, e.g., career development, training, organization development, etc.

There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, e.g., "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in staffing, training, and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.

Regards,
ajithaa

Case-2 (20 Marks)

Merlyn Monroe is not a complainer. If she has a major ache, she usually suffers in silence. Although her employer, Atlantic Mutual Insurance, has an employee assistance program to provide emotional and psychological support in the workplace, she certainly never thinks of using it, even if she did have a worry on her mind. “They say it's confidential, but who really knows?” asked Ms. Monroe, an administrative assistant at the insurance company.

But Merlyn Monroe’s life changed on September 11, 2001. Her office at 140 Broadway in New York City was near the World Trade Center. She watched the whole thing from her 50th-floor office window. Ms. Monroe had never seen so much destruction in her life. She had never seen such a horrific terrorist attack. Nor had she been forced to relive 9/11 over and over. Every time she talked to people, they wanted details, which made it worse for her. She had so much anger about what had happened to her life, the lives of so many people, and the city where she worked for 40 years.

Two weeks after 9/11, Ms. Monroe was still suffering aftereffects. Even though she lives on Staten Island and Atlantic Mutual’s offices have been temporarily relocated to Madison, New Jersey, not an hour goes by when she doesn’t have flashbacks of her experiences of 9/11.

Questions

1. What should Atlantic Mutual Management do, if anything, to cope with the aftereffects of 9/11?

2. How long would you expect employees to be adversely affected by 9/11 if a company provides no formal assistance for dealing with anger and stress?

3. What, if anything, should management do about employees who appear to be suffering from such kinds of trauma and stress but will neither admit it nor accept help from their employer?

4. Outline the role of an HR specialist in providing a safe and healthy environment for employees.

HRM normally provides a good working environment to accurately utilize employees' skills. It is typically found in large organizations or companies as an independent department. HRD aims to develop employees' skills and their personal growth. Additionally, it assists employees in achieving success in their careers.

HRM normally provides a good working environment to accurately utilize employees' skills, and it is undertaken in big organizations or companies as an independent department. HRD aims at the development of employees' skills and their personal growth. It also helps and motivates employees to achieve success in their careers.

Thank you.

Position of an HR Manager in the Organizational Chart

What is the position of an HR Manager in the organizational chart if the General Manager (GM) is in the downline of the Managing Director (MD)? Will the HR Manager report to the GM or the MD?

Thanks & Regards,
Jayant

In my point of view, if the General Manager (GM) is down the line of the Managing Director (MD), then the GM will be responsible for all areas in the company. Consequently, the HR department will also be under the GM, and HR will report to the GM. However, this condition varies according to the company because, in many companies, General Managers act as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), so this may differ across organizations.

Management through Development is a continuous assessment process of Human Capital with an eye on the Management's "relationship" with Human Capital to ensure individual Growth and thereby charting of Individual Career Path is what you may term as Human Resource Management through Development (HRMD).

Wishes ...