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The Strategic Role of The HR Functions

The document discusses frameworks for understanding the role of HR departments. It outlines the CIPD's HR Profession Map, which identifies 10 areas of expertise for HR professionals ranging from operational to strategic levels. It also summarizes several models that categorize HR functional roles, including Legge's innovator roles, Tyson and Fell's building site analogy, Storey's strategic/tactical model, and Ulrich's HR Champion model and its focus on strategic partner, change agent, employee champion, and administrative expert roles.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
38 views43 pages

The Strategic Role of The HR Functions

The document discusses frameworks for understanding the role of HR departments. It outlines the CIPD's HR Profession Map, which identifies 10 areas of expertise for HR professionals ranging from operational to strategic levels. It also summarizes several models that categorize HR functional roles, including Legge's innovator roles, Tyson and Fell's building site analogy, Storey's strategic/tactical model, and Ulrich's HR Champion model and its focus on strategic partner, change agent, employee champion, and administrative expert roles.

Uploaded by

hadi fASIAL
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHAPTER 4

THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF THE HR


FUNCTIONS
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
● Explain how the evolution of HR functional roles has influenced the HR
department today.
● Outline the elements of the CIPD HR Profession Map.
● Critically evaluate the main frameworks and models that have been
developed to analyse the role of the HR function.
● Develop an insight into the role conflict experienced by HR professionals.
● Understand the different structural arrangements available to HR
departments and recommend alternatives.
● Appreciate the factors that influence structural decisions.
● Evaluate the factors that impact on the changing role of the HR department.
About this Chapter
In this chapter we will examine:
1. The role played by the HR department
2. Its’ structure and contribution
3. The scope and evolution of the modern HR function
4. The dilemmas, contradictions, and choices faced by
HR professionals
5. The various models of HR functional roles
6. The structural choices open to HR departments
A new mandate for HR departments
Ulrich (1997, p. 24) posed the provocative question:
Should we do away with HR? . . . It is often ineffective,
incompetent and costly; in a phrase, it is value sapping.
Indeed, if HR were to remain configured as it is today in
many companies, I would have to answer the question above
with a resounding, ‘yes, abolish the thing!’

• HR professionals are often called upon to justify their


activities and explain how they add value
The scope of the HR function

Drucker (1961, p. 269) observed:


Personnel administration . . . is largely a collection of
incidental techniques without much internal cohesion. As
personnel administration conceives the job of managing
worker and work, it is partly a file clerk’s job, partly a
housekeeping job, partly a social worker’s job and partly
fire-fighting to head off union trouble or to settle it . . . [they]
are necessary chores. I doubt though that they should be
put together in one department for they are a hodge-podge
The scope of the HR function
• The UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) crafted the most influential
framework for HR activities published in 2009 (https
://www.cipd.co.uk/).
• The HR Profession Map details the ten areas in which
the CIPD believes practicing HR managers should
demonstrate expertise:
The scope of the HR function (CIPD 10 Areas)

1. Organization design
• Job design
• Organization structure, and
• Change
2. Organization development
• Culture management, and
• Development
The scope of the HR function (CIPD 10 Areas)
3. Resourcing and Talent Planning
• Resourcing,
• Succession Planning, and
• Induction
4. Learning and Talent Development
• Training,
• Development, and
• Couching
The scope of the HR function (CIPD 10 Areas)

5. Performance and Reward


• Performance management, and
• Reward management
6. Employee Engagement
• Ensuring a positive employee work experience aligned
with organization objectives
The scope of the HR function (CIPD 10 Areas)
7. Employee Relations
• Union relations
• Disciplinary and grievance procedures,
• Welfare, and
• Legal compliance
8. Service Delivery and Information
• The provision of management information and data, and
• HR service delivery to the line
The scope of the HR function (CIPD 10 Areas)

9. Strategy Insights and Solutions


• The application of knowledge of strategic issues of the
design an delivery of HR strategy
10. Leading and Managing the HR Functions
• Leading and managing a ‘fit for purpose’ HR functions
The scope of the HR function (CIPD)

Organization design Employee Engagement


Organization development Employee Relations

Resourcing and Talent Service Delivery and


Planning Information
Learning and Talent Strategy Insights and
Development Solutions
Performance and Reward Leading and Managing the
HR Functions
The scope of the HR function
• The CIPD developed its HR Map in consultation with leading
HR professionals
• The CIPD has used it as the basis for the content of its CIPD
professional accreditation courses
• We can see that HR’s role comprises a range of activities that
impact directly on employees’ experience of working in the
organization
• The CIPD’s ten professional areas can be undertaken at four
different levels of seniority, ranging from basic administration
support, through policy development, to strategic leadership.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

• While CIPD’s HR Profession Map provides a framework


developed by practitioners, academics have also offered some
roles that HR can play. There are five widely known models:
1. Legge’s (1978) model of HR power and intervention.
2. Tyson and Fell’s (1986) building site analogy.
3. Storey’s (1992) strategic/tactical model.
4. Ulrich’s original ‘HR Champion’ model (1997) and his updated
typology of HR roles (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005).
5. Caldwell’s (2001) change matrix.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

1. Legge’s (1978) HR innovator model


• Legge’s concern was to explain how HR professionals
could effect change within their organization, and she
suggested that they could choose between three options:

Operational (tactical) roles Strategic roles


1. Conformist innovator 3. Deviant innovator
2. Problem solver
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

1. Legge’s (1978) HR innovator model


• Conformist innovator
• using HR expertise to improve organizational performance
by ‘buying into’ the prevailing managerial value-system.
• suggesting improvements that work within the accepted
paradigm, rather than challenging it.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

1. Legge’s (1978) HR innovator model


• Deviant innovator
• encouraging radical change by questioning prior
assumptions.
• this role involves the HR professional seeking to
persuade line managers to change their way of working
at a fundamental level.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

1. Legge’s (1978) HR innovator model


• Problem solver
• HR professionals contribute by helping to resolve
certain organizational problems through their specialist
expertise.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

1. Legge’s (1978) HR innovator model


• Legge pointed out the problems arising from HR’s
relative powerlessness and marginalization from core
decision-making processes.
• Guest and King (2004) showed that there are still
tensions between HR and the line over responsibility
for HR
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

1. Legge’s (1978) HR innovator model


• Guest and King (2004) also noted that the HR
function has increasingly become aligned with
organizational aims and aspirations, with a reduced
focus on employee interests, further curtailing the
possibility for ‘deviant’ innovation.
• Legge’s model is useful for understanding the political
arena within which HR professionals operate
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

2. Tyson and Fells’s (1986) building site model


• Tyson and Fell (1986) argued that HR functions could
essentially be regarded as playing three possible
roles:
• Clerk of works
• Contract manager
• Architect
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

2. Tyson and Fells’s (1986) building site model


• Clerk of works
• least opportunity for choice and discretion
• paperwork and administration
• Contract manager
• where there was a significant union presence
• role was focused around systems and procedures
• Architect
• in some cases, HR departments could play a strategic role
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

3. Storey’s strategic/tactical model


• Storey (1992) examined 15 large organizations and
argued that the roles played by the HR function could
be plotted against two axes:
• interventionary/non-interventionary
• strategic/tactical (see figure 4.1)
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

Figure 4.1 Storey’s HR functional roles


Typologies of HR Functional Roles
3. Storey’s strategic/tactical model
• The advisor role comprised internal consultancy and
advice to line managers without being interventionary.
• The handmaiden role was reactive to line manager requests.
• The regulatory role included involvement in the development
and application of employment rules and policy.
• The change-makers were both strategic and inteventionary
and concerned with SHRM and the management of change.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles
4. Ulrich’s (1997) ‘HR Champion’ model
• Based on his view, Ulrich proposed a 2-by-2 matrix about the
role that the HR department should be playing.
• The vertical axis indicated a focus on either the day-to-day role or the
future, and the horizontal axis focus on either people or processes.
• This gave rise to four potential roles:
• change agent
• employee champion
• administrative expert
• strategic partner
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

Figure 4.2 Ulrich’s (1997) ‘HR Champion’ model


Typologies of HR Functional Roles
4. Ulrich’s (1997) ‘HR Champion’ model
• Strategic Partner
• focus on HR activities in supporting the strategic direction of the
organization
• it is this element of Ulrich’s model that gave rise to the concept of the ‘HR
partner’
• this role is associated with a range of functions:
• strategic planning; organization development and design; improving
organizational productivity; facilitating mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships;
recruitment and selection strategy; employee development; compensations
and benefits; and overseeing trade union negotiations
Typologies of HR Functional Roles
4. Ulrich’s (1997) ‘HR Champion’ model
• Administrative Expert
• focus on ensuring that HR activities and tasks are executed
efficiently and quickly
• responding to the needs of the line
• demonstrating the value added to the organization by HR
Typologies of HR Functional Roles
4. Ulrich’s (1997) ‘HR Champion’ model
• Employee Champion
• focus on the need for HR to manage the wellbeing of individual
employees
• ensuring that employees are aware of the strategic issues facing the
firm
• this role is shrinking due to the growing focus on the business
partner role
• though the demand for welfare-related work has been growing
Typologies of HR Functional Roles
4. Ulrich’s (1997) ‘HR Champion’ model
• Change Agent
• focus on the management of organizational change
• Ulrich and Brockbank’s (2005) updated model
• In the expanded model, they combined the strategic partner and
change agent roles, whilst,
• Adding two new roles:
• Human capital developer
• HR Leader
Typologies of HR Functional Roles
• Ulrich and Brockbank’s (2005) updated model
• Human Capital developer
• Managing and developing the workforce for the future with a focus
on individual employees and matching their wishes with suitable
opportunities.
• HR Leader
• Leading and valuing the HR function
• Implementing HR initiatives within the HR functions
• Playing key role in organization’s governance
• Acting as the organization conscience
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

Figure 4.3 Ulrich and Brockbank’s (2005)updated model


Typologies of HR Functional Roles
5. Caldwell’s (2001) change matrix
• Caldwell’s (2001) model focuses on HR’s role in
managing change
• He argued that Storey’s and Ulrich’s work does not
address some important complexities HR specialists face
in managing change
• Based on previous work, and his own extensive research,
he developed his own two-by-two model.
Typologies of HR Functional Roles

Figure 4.4 Caldwell’s model


Typologies of HR Functional Roles
5. Caldwell’s (2001) change matrix
• Champion
• Change champions are high-level executives who lead
strategic transformational change programmes.
• Synergist
• Synergists are senior internal or external HR professionals
who strategically coordinate and integrate complex and
large-scale change projects across the organization
Typologies of HR Functional Roles
5. Caldwell’s (2001) change matrix
• Adapter
• Change adapters are mid-level HR generalists and
specialists who build support for change within business
units and functions.
• Consultant
• Consultants are specialists, either internal or external to the
organization, who implement discrete change projects.
HR roles: Tensions and ambiguities
• HR’s domain of responsibility are rooted in different, and
often conflicting, ideologies.
• The HR professionals are essentially caught between a
number of competing demands and priorities
• They are under pressure to:
• Take the side of the employer
• Extract maximum value from employees
• As well as, perform own role at minimum cost
HR roles: Tensions and ambiguities
• HR professionals are expected to have the interests of
the organization at heart
• Lack of clarity over the boundaries between HR’s role
and that of line managers
• HR’s legal responsibility to develop and enforce legally
compliant HR policies and practices
• HR responsibility (legal) vs the wishes of line managers
who may regard HR processes as overly bureaucratic and
cumbersome.
HR roles: Tensions and ambiguities

Figure 4.5 Caldwell (2003) competing pressures on the HR professional


Competing pressures on the HR professionals
Structuring the HR department

• The question of how to structure the HR department is of great


concern.
• The principal domains where structural choices for the HR
department have to be made are:
• Location: where should the HR function be situated?
• Reporting lines: to whom should HR staff report?
• Areas of responsibility: which tasks should be the responsibility of HR
and of line managers?
• Grouping of tasks and responsibilities: how should tasks be grouped
into individual jobs, and how should jobs be linked to one another?
Structuring the HR department

Outsourcing
HR functions

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