APRIL 2010
Part A
Question 1
a) 4 major activities of human resource management
Human resource management is the utilization of human resources towards achieving organizational goals. The goals can be achieved after several activities had been done by human resource managers. The major activities of human resource management are:
1. Job Analysis
Job analysis is a systematic way to gather and analyse information about the content, context and human requirement of jobs in which the jobs are performed. The primary purpose of job analysis is to get a clear understanding of what is done on a job and what capabilities are needed to do a job. The result of the job analysis process helps the human resource managers to carry out their functions.
2. Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of locating and encouraging potential applicants to apply for existing or anticipated job openings. recruitment can be done internally or externally. For internal recruitment, managers can rehiring former employees, examining the HR records and others. For external recruitment, managers can make advertisement in mass media and using public and private employment agencies.
3. Selection
Selection is the process of choosing qualified individuals who are available to fill in the positions in an organization. Selection test is carried out to test the job related skills among the interviewer.
4. Orientation and training
Orientation is the planned introduction of new employees to their jobs, coworkers and organization. Training is the process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need to do their jobs. Orientation and training is important so that the organization can improve its performance and it helps to improve worker productivity. It could help to solve the problem of absenteeism.
b) Four potential challenges facing today's Human Resource Managers
Challenges to Human Resource Management can be categorized into three groups which are the environment challenges, the organization challenges and the individual challenges. The environment challenges are external ti the organization and need to be monitor constantly for opportunities and treats. One of the environment challenges is shortage of skill labor. The organization challenges are internal to the organization and managers can have more control over these challenges. The individual challenges are when the company treats its individual employee to affect both the organizational challenges. The two challenges under individual challenges are empowerment and brain drain.
Shortage of skill labor and rise of service sector
Due to changing in consumer tastes and preferences, legal and regulation, science and technology has required more skilled workers. The human resource managers need to spend more money in training programs for their employees. For example, to expand the organization, the manager should restructure it by looking how many skilled workers that the organization have before deciding to buy numbers of computers.
Organizational culture
Organizational culture is a basic assumptions and beliefs shared by members of an organization and may differ greatly. Organization need to make cultural adjustments to keep up with environmental changes.
Empowerment
The employer give employees control over the work that need to be done. Employees then will need more skill and authority to make decision that would normally be made by their managers. For example, managers give their employees too many authority to them to finish their task. As a result, it will be difficult for managers to get back their power.
Brain drain
Brain drain refers to losing intellectual employees that result when competitors lure away key employees. It can negatively affect innovation and cause delays in the organization's activities. The example of brain drain is when an intellectual employee work outside of the country after finishing their studies in their own country.
As a conclusion, the challenges face by Human Resource Managers today need to be solve efficiently so that the productivity of an organization will not affected.
