Executive Summary
This report aims at exploring the various functions of human resource management. The changing roles of HRM to deal with the acquisition and other changes in a company’s overall strategy are discussed. The company is required to deal with staffing and retaining the staff.
Introduction
Merger and acquisition are essential for the growth and diversification of a company. It always results in various cultural and work-related issues. The majority of the cultural and work-related issues can be solved by implementing an efficient HR system in the organization. Human resource management is a body of knowledge that defines the nature of work and a set of policies and practices that regulate the employment relationship. HRM is a process of making efficient use of human resources so that the set goals are achieved. Humans and their potential drive an organization in a systematic and well-defined manner. Human resource management is known as personnel management in earlier days. For the smooth running of any organization, the human factor is important. “Today Human Resources (HR) management has gone from an administrative function to a full-fledged strategic partner in the enterprise.” (Tresero, 2008).
Employees are the greatest asset of an organization, and without whom everyday business functions, such as managing cash flow, making business transactions, communicating through all forms of media, and dealing with customers, cannot be completed. HRM function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs the company has 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 personnel and management practices to conform with various regulations. HRM also includes maintaining particulars of employee benefits, compensation, employee records, and personnel policies. These details will be maintained at the time of employment in the employee manuals. Human resources vary in many ways, such as personality, culture, attitude, beliefs, education, age, and so on. It is important to understand the human factor in an organization for motivating and controlling them towards the goals of the company. “Human Resource Management is based on ideas and techniques developed to enhance worker motivation, productivity and performance.” (What is HRM, 2008).
Every organization has set its own unique culture or value. Culture in an organization includes the roles, values, beliefs, behavior patterns of employees. Organizational changes take place continuously, and these changes impact not only the business but also its employees. Human resource managers are responsible for the good treatment of people in an organization and for bringing people into the organization, helping them to perform their work, compensating them for labor, and solving their problems. There are several functions for HRM managers, which include staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, safety and health, and human resource research. It is important to understand the features of these functions, and HRM managers should have prior knowledge of the job evaluation and analysis process, which determines activities, skills, and knowledge required for an employee to perform a specific job, and thus it involves the process of collecting information of the job. This is done through the job description and job specification. The job description describes the duties, responsibilities, working conditions, and activities of a particular job. Job specifications describe an employee’s qualifications, experience, knowledge, skills, or abilities that are required to perform the job. “One of the most critical organizational capabilities is learning to adapt to the new hypercompetitive global landscape.” (Harvey, Novicevic & Garrison, 2004, p.275-294). The function of the HR manager varies from organization to organization. It varies based on the size, type, and functions of the organization. “The probability of a global organization developing a competitive advantage will be dramatically diminished without a sufficient supply of qualified managers.” (Harbey, Speier & Novicevic, 1999, p.459-476).
Human resource is about creating systems, processes, and environments where employees perform better and are satisfied. There are various career paths and opportunities in the profession. Every function of HRM has got its own values and morale. Human resources management and other functions must work together to achieve organizational success and to compete locally and internationally. In order for an organization to be successful by achieving prosperity and attaining more profits, reasonable goals in each of these components must be achieved. “The role of human resource management (HRM) in affecting the success of M&A both nationally and internationally is timely and challenging.” (Weber & Fried, 2008). Staffing is the process involved in finding the right person for the right job with perfect skills and abilities. Employee evaluations are done through performance appraisals. Training and development help the employees of an organization to have a clear picture of their work and how to develop with their own motivational concepts. Good employee and labor relations should be maintained. Special safety and health schemes are provided for the enrichment of the employees, and researches are done for the better efficiency and nourishment of human resource management in an organization. All these processes will affect the turnover and can have a significant impact on the morale and productivity of an organization. “Human Capital Management helps organizations to develop their resource plans. It highlights the importance of strategically anticipating Human Capital changes through planning; it offers basic planning steps, issues to consider, and strategies.” (Human capital management planning: Overview, 2008).
The major aim of HRM is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. Employers who consider employee morale and motivation a priority often get the benefits in return with high productivity and better quality. The communication processes are of great importance, and it involves passing of information from management to employees. It is essential to understand the human factor in the organization through the developed set of principles and practices of HRM to meet the global challenges. “The globalization of business is making it increasingly important to understand how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can operate more effectively.” (Florkowiski & Schuller, 1994, 827-851).
The challenges of the HR manager will be increased after the acquisition and demands more to be strategic oriented and should be flexible in global as well as local with effective global human resource management systems.
Issues related to the acquisition
The acquisition is the strategic decision adopted by a company for the maximization of its growth by the introduction of advanced production and marketing strategies. “An acquisition is when you buy another business and end up in controlling it.” ((n.d.), Mergers and acquisitions: Introduction).
When a company decides to go into the international market, there are several advantages as well as disadvantages. The company is in a situation to make various decisions such as staffing, marketing strategy, export strategy, and so on. Besides, the market study is essential to understand the segment to be taken and competitor’s analysis is essential for doing further marketing plans.
”An acquisition may be defined as an act of acquiring effective control by one company over assets or management of another company without any combination of companies.” ((n.d.). Mergers and acquisitions: Acquisitions and takeovers).
The acquisition can be friendly or forced. When it is forced, it is known as a takeover. The acquisition will result in wide opportunities as well as managing issues. The main issue that an acquiring company looks at in order to realize the goals of its investment is the new company’s level of staffing. It is essential to train selected new employees as well as existing employees to cope up with the new global strategic environment. Besides, certain other problems related to employees will exist when decisions of elimination are taken. If employees are eliminated, it is more likely that financial expenses will be high for meeting the previous employees’ settlements and the difficult part is of deciding who stays and in what positions and who goes. Much of this depends on the nature of the acquisition. The primary task of resolving the level of management staffing is to determine whether there are redundancies and who are the most qualified employees. Such a process is normally driven by the acquiring company. “Posting expatriates to a new location is usually much more cost-intensive than using local skilled workers and executives.” (Simon et al., 2008).
Some of the most important management functions of HRM include staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, safety and health, and last but not least human resource research. In order to have prior knowledge of the features of these functions, we should be able to understand the job analysis process, which determines skills, knowledge, and activities required for an employee to perform a specific job. Thus, it involves the process of collecting information about the job. This is done through the process known as job description and job specification. Staffing is the process involved in finding the right person for the right job with perfect skills and abilities.
“M&A is a corporate or organizational strategy designed to buy or sell a business entity for the purpose of accelerating growth and profitability.” (Gunu, 2008).
Conclusion
The acquisition opens for wider operations of the business. In order to attain success after the acquisition, it is important to retain the existing staffs that already have good skills and knowledge. Selecting new employees involves much time, which delays operations and involves costs for training and development. It is the HRM who has to deal with the cultural impact after acquisition and other various issues. The HR department needs to implement training and development for the new system along with developing the skills of employees. Organizations that are able to survive and compete in the ever-changing marketplace will be those that are strategically prepared themselves for future challenges through effective leadership development programs, practices, and systems.
References
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