Terms for Review

automation 11

Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) 25 cultural mosaic 17 demographic changes 13 economic forces 8 educational attainment 14 functional authority 25 gamification 5 human resource audit 22 human resource management 3 knowledge workers 10 line authority 25 mission statement 6 organization structure 18

This section of the text has emphasized a strategic approach to human resource management. This is because, increasingly, HR managers are expected to contribute to the organization’s strategic thinking and be strategic business partners to other executives in organizations. Marketing, production, and financial strategies depend upon the abilities of the firm’s human resources to execute these plans. The status of the HR function within an organization is likely to be determined by its contribution to the organization’s overall success. Strategic management of human resources may be one key to this success. To assist with the “people side” of implementation, HR professionals will be forced to uncover, through audits and research, the causes of and solutions to people-related problems. Their diagnostic abilities to assess present and potential human resource issues will be needed as they and their staff increasingly serve as internal consultants to others who are facing HR–related challenges. They then will be called on to facilitate changes in the organization that maximize the human contribution. In short, the traditional administrative skills associated with human resource management must grow to accommodate diagnostic, assessment, consulting, and facilitation skills.

Review and Discussion Questions

1. What are the goals of a human resource department? Choose an organization that you are familiar with and indicate which of these goals will be more important in this organization and discuss why.

2. Draw a diagram of a human resource department in a firm that employs over 5,000 persons and name the likely components of such a depar tment. Which of these functions are likely to be eliminated in a small firm employing 50 persons?

3. Identify and briefly describe three major external challenges (choosing one each from economic, technological, demographic, or sociocultural organizational culture 20 organizational goals 3 productivity 9 sociocultural forces 17 staff authority 25 strategic human resource management 5 categories) facing human resource managers in Canada, and their implications.

4. Suppose your employer is planning a chain of high-quality restaurants to sell food products that it already produces. Outline considerations that may be made by a strategic human resource professional prior to a roll-out of the planned restaurants.

5. What are four trends (or attributes) in the Canadian labour market that have implications for a human resource manager? Explain your answer, citing which of the human resource functions will be affected and how.