Executive Summary The article speaks about four ways in which HR can deliver organisationalexcellence. First being partnering with senior and line managers in strategyexecution. Second, it delivers administrative efficiency to ensure that costs arereduced while the quality is maintained. Third, it helps in increasing employeecontribution. Finally, it acts an agent of continuous transformation. Based onthese points, the line managers must work to completely integrate HR intocompany’s real work. There are five challenges that the companies face in the modern scenariobecause of which HR finds an important role. First, increase in globalisation haspushed the companies to increase their ability to learn, collaborate and managediversity, complexity and ambiguity. Second, initially the companiesconcentrated on cost cutting measures to increase their efficiency but later onthe focus needs to shift towards revenue growth. They must be market focussed,develop innovative and creative products and must encourage free flow of information. Third, there is a need to incorporate technology as a viable,productive part of the work setting. Fourth, the organisations face a majorchallenge in attracting, developing and retaining intellectual capital. Last, thesuccessful organisations are the ones which adapt themselves quickly to thechanges and which can take rapid decisions and innovate new ways of doingbusiness. The challenges described above have moulded new roles for HR. Successfulorganisations are the ones which can quickly turn strategy into action, tomanage processes intelligently and efficiently, to maximise employeecontribution and commitment and to create conditions for seamless change.HR managers should act as full-fledged strategic partners with seniormanagement and guide serious discussion of how the company should carry outits strategy. Firstly, it should be held responsible for defining an organisationalarchitecture. Secondly, it must be accountable for conducting an organisationalaudit. Thirdly, HR should identify methods for renovating the parts of theorganisational architecture that need it. Finally, HR must take stock of its ownwork and set clear priorities.HR staff will have to improve the efficiency of both their own function and theentire organisation. HR work can be improved by lowering the cost and byremoving steps or leveraging technology. HR professionals must be heldaccountable for ensuring that employees are engaged and they feel committedto the organisation and contribute fully. In addition the new HR should be theemployee’s voice in management discussions. It should also offer employeesopportunities for personal and professional growth. HR can play a critical role in recommending ways to ameliorate morale problems. The new HR has aresponsibility of building the organisation’s capacity to embrace and capitalizeon change. The hardest and most important challenge facing many companies in this era of flux is changing their culture. In order to bring about new culture, HR must followprocess of defining and clarifying the concept of culture change, articulating whyculture change is central to business success, defining a process for assessingthe current culture and the desired new culture as well as measuring the gapbetween the two and identifying alternate approaches for culture change. The new mandate for HR requires dramatic changes in how HR professionalsthink and behave but more importantly it is required that the senior executiveschange what they expect from HR and their behaviour towards the HR staff. There are four ways in which the senior executives can create an atmospherewhere HR is focussed on outcomes rather than activities. They must demonstratethat they believe typical HR issues are critical to business success. They caninclude HR professionals in strategic discussions and state explicitly that withoutthe collaboration of HR, strategies are more hopes than realities, promises thanacts, and concepts than results. A company has much better chance of achievingits goals if senior managers state specifically what they expect from HR and thentrack, measure and reward performance. Investing in innovative HR practices isanother way to signal to the organisation that HR is worthy of the companiesmoney and attention. Finally, the hardest but perhaps the most important thingseniors managers can do to drive forward the new mandate for HR, is to improvethe quality of the HR staff itself.HR professionals must focus more on the deliverables of their work to meet theincreased expectations of their organisation. Senior executives need to invest inHR as if it were a business.
Critical Review
In this article, the author speaks about the role of HR in the modern scenariowhich has gained importance and expanded into a multi-dimensional framework.But if the role of HR is kept stagnant, then the author is in the opinion of abolishing HR practices. This view of the author can be challenged in a way thatHR’s role which involves some basic things like hiring, firing, rewards andrecognition etc, could not be carried out. HR may not be acting as a strategicpartner in decision making, but its role had never lost relevance.According to the author, the HR role should be concentrated more on outcomesthan on practices. But the practices shape the organisations’ outcomes. Theprocess which an organisation undertakes has a lot of relevance to the outcome. Therefore, this opinion cannot sustain its credibility at all times. There areseveral examples which demonstrate that there are disparities between thefunctions of HR and the real work of the organisation. This is something which requires to be set straight first. There were several challenges listed out by theauthor which the companies face in the modern era. He also suggested solutionsto meet those challenges. The author gives examples of companies which have inculcated different ways tosmoothen their HR practices. The advent of technology has helped the HR togear up and lower down the costs of the organisation. The opinion of the authorthat HR should work closely with the line managers makes sense as the linemanagers can specifically guide the HR about the needs. This calls for HRbecoming an integral part of the strategic team of an organisation.He provided a framework to guide the organisation through the debate anddiscussion of the audit process, which is one of the several roles of HR. Accordingto the author, HR needs to shed their traditional image of rule making policypolice and make sure that all the required routine work in companies is donewell. One of the major roles that HR has to play is of a change agent. To explainthis point he pointed out the example of GE explaining how to guide atransformation process in a company. The competitiveness which prevails in thecurrent scenario has brought about a major need for companies to adapt quicklyto changes. The author’s point of HR leading a process to make the changesexplicit rather than deciding on what changes the organisation must go throughgoes in line with the previous mentioned challenge. He not only spoke about thechanges in HR policies but also the changes required in the behaviour of thesenior executives towards H