Human Resource Case Study: Yorkshire Trains

The purpose of this reflective paper is to show my understanding along with what I have learned about HRM (human resources management) and the different way HRM impacts the success behind every business, along with the rules and regulations that go with it. Over the last five weeks I have learned quite a bit about HRM and will reflect on that throughout this paper. “Human resource management is the managing of human skills and talents to make sure they are used effectively and in alignment with an organizations goals.” (Youssef, 2012). I will be including the things I learned throughout the last five weeks in this

|Your managing director asked you to analyse company’s HR planning. In your report, you must include : |

Furthermore, it is stated that HRM practices can also be categorized on the basis of their emphasis into three sets viz., quality focus, cost reduction, and differential innovation (Guest, 1997). The importance of effective HR practices can be judged by the fact that with the effective execution of HR practices, the employees tend to be more committed to their work and they go the extra mile to add to organization’s benefit.

In this assignment I have looked at strategic human resource management perspective in Marks and Spencer. Before move on the strategic human resource management, let us have a brief introduction about Marks and Spencer. According to the corporate website Marks and Spencer, started its business as a single market stall and grown to become one of the UK’s leading retailers of clothing, food, home products and financial services. Marks and Spencer employs 78,000 in the UK and abroad, have more than 700 stores and serve over 21 million customers every week. Marks and Spencer strongly committed to provide high quality products as premium prices. The company has an established brand name and exceptional financial turnover of £8 billion in 2012 (About Us, 2014).

A key role of Human Resource Management in any organisation is to ensure that the Human Resource Strategies enable the organisation to achieve its objectives. In this assessment, you need to analyse and examine an Australian company and describe their broader organisational strategy and the extent that the strategy is supported by the Human

Wright and McMahan (1994) define strategic HRM as “the pattern of planned Human Resource deployments and activities intended to enable the organisation to achieve its goals.” A HR function should impact the success of an organisation; a policy must remain current and suitable to both the internal and external environment. Ulrich and Lake (1990) affirm, ‘HRM systems can be the source of organisational capabilities that allow organisations to learn and capitalise on new opportunities.’

The practise of Human Resources is moving from the traditional forms of managing people to a more strategic form whereby the Human Resources function is closely linked with organisational performance and success. This strategic form of human resources has increased the need for the Human Resource professional to understand the linkages between Corporate Strategy, Human Resource Strategy and Employee Integration.

Using relevant theories and approaches develop an HR plan for the UK Speed Rail Link Project.

David Guest 1987 argues that his model has a different perspective to the view of ‘personnel management’ which the CIPD state as ‘all the management decisions and actions that directly affect or influence people as members of the organisations rather than job holders’ although personnel management is traditional, it means that compared to the HRM of today, the focus is on “specific tasks and responsibilities” the managers of the organisations have no control over their employees. David Guest (1987) model focuses on HRM practices “strategic integration, quality, flexibility and commitment’ (Redman and Wilkinson, 2001, p.161) He believes that by using his model of HRM, will increase “job performance and low turnover” (Paauwe and Paauwe, 2004, p.55). The guest model has the concept of focusing on the employee (flexibility and commitment) a soft approach to Management. It also employs a 'flow '

In recent years, human resource managers have been triggered to play a more strategic role in their organizations, especially in making strategic decisions and going through radical organizational changes such as merging process. Nowadays this requirement is even more urgent and act due to the fact that past decade has been characterized by enormous growth in mergers. HR Management should establish deliberate plan and procedures within strict implementing to reach the organization objectives.

The 21st century workplace environment is established on numerous reforms and transformations in different aspects that constitute the management of human resources. Therefore, the human resource departments in different departments have adopted different approaches to managing their employees. In this regard, most businesses and organizations across the globe have adopted different concepts of strategic human resource management in their operations, particularly, in managing their employees. With this mind, these businesses and organizations consider either best practice or best fit approaches in addressing issues that concerns employees. Speaking from this perspective, this paper will evaluate the ‘best fit/best practices’ approach in relation to strategic HRM.

Guest (1987) and Storey (1992) in their definitions of soft and hard models of HRM view the key distinction as being whether the emphasis is placed on the human or the resource. Soft HRM is associated with the human relations movement, the utilization of individual talents, and McGregor's (1960) Theory Y perspective on individuals (developmental humanism). This has been equated with the concept of a 'high commitment work system' (Walton 1985b), 'which is aimed at eliciting a commitment so that behaviour is primarily self-regulated rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the individual and relations within the organization are based on high levels of trust' (Wood 1996: 41). Soft HRM is also associated with the goals of flexibility and adaptability (which themselves are problematic concepts, as we shall see in more detail later), and implies that communication plays a central role in management (Storey and Sisson 1993).

Clearly, the benefits of Barclays PLC & Lehman Brothers mergers are numerous, but to examine those benefits in the context of the use of human being resource management. Organizational mergers are examined from three perspectives: management, the employee, and the human resource management function cited by (Kets First State et al. 2007, P: 11-L).

Guest(1987) considers HRM to be an unmistakable way to deal with dealing with the workforce and contends that, in spite of the fact that faculty administration will likewise choose and prepare staff, it is the particular methodology in the choice and preparing that matters. HRM 's methodology ought to be connected to superior and duty instead of consistence. Guests(1997) perceives that, albeit experimental proof is just barely starting to demonstrate the connection in the middle of HRM and execution, confirmation is as of now proposing that HRM works. The perspective from industry is likewise recommending that HRM is tackling a vital part in industry. The CIPD (2003) HR study identified HR issues as now being frequently examined at official sheets and HR supervisors seeing their part as that of a key business accomplice, with the HR work now centred around accomplishing key business objectives and creating worker capacities.

Within this essay an in depth analysis will be conducted on the difference between Human Resource Management and Strategic Human Resource Management using contemporary perspectives. Human Resource Management (HRM) is the process of managing human resources in a systematic way. It is a practice devised to maximise the performance of employees and is concerned with the application of management principles to manage organisational personnel while paying attention to the policies and systems of the entity (Delaney & Huselid, 1996). Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a function of management which entails development of policies, programmes and practices related to human resources, which are aligned with business strategy so as to achieve the strategic objectives of the organisation (Patrick M. Wright, 1992). Its primary purpose is to improve the performance of the business and maintain a culture that encourages innovation and works continuously to gain competitive advantage. In this essay the Resource-Based View, High Performance Management and High Commitment Management perspectives of Strategic Human Resource Management and Traditional and Collaborative