BUS303 Week 1 Discussion 1 HR and Management

The modern organization demands decentralization and a degree of delegation of authority. This is mainly because operations and business environment have become more complex and organizations are demanding ideal or close-to-ideal standards in operational efficiency. Frontline managers are those who are required to control operations directly by controlling the assets and resources used in production activities and yes, they do have a role to play in HR.

Under decentralized operations, frontline managers are in-charge of small teams that are tasked with a business unit. Frontline managers posses an intimate knowledge of the process, the people and the operations involved within their area of responsibility. It is also important to note that due to the nature of the relationship between different management levels, frontline managers tend to have the least amount of knowledge in management but the highest level of specialized/detailed knowledge in operations.

A clear gap exists between the information demands of executive management to continuously have appropriate data for decision-making and demand for organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Frontline managers are required to bridge this gap by providing the data required by management for decision-making and ensure optimal operations standards. Executive management will require some level of organizational control and more often than not, critical functions and services are left centralized and are conducted from the same headquarters including Human Resource. In this case, Human Resource (and such centralized departments) will rely on the information from individual business units. It is important to outline that decentralized operations require executive management to provide planning and control to the organization. Therefore, frontline managers insights need to be linked to executive decision considerations.

Under this organization system, frontline leaders will be tasked with planning for human resource requirements within the individual business unit as well as functions of job analysis and design, selection and job fit and performance appraisal for team members. The centralized HR department will plan for the human resource of the entire organization based on the requirements of all business units and available resources for human resource. Similarly, they will deal with other functions such attracting and recruiting talent, compensation and benefits administration. HR will also task itself with training and development as well as ensuring HRM practices can contribute to a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage not only by enhancing employees' ability, and offering motivation and opportunities, but also by shaping supply‐side and demand‐side mobility constraints (Delery 2017)

Morgan, Y. (2015). Human Resource Management (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://ashford.content.edu

Delery, J. E. (2017). Strategic human resource management, human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles? Human Resource Management Journal, 27(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12137