Managing & Leading People: How Hr and Line Mangement Work Together to Lead and Manage People with in an Organisation
Critically discuss how Human Resource professionals and line management work together to manage and lead people within your organisation or an organisation well known to you
Assignment
In order to critically discuss how HR professionals and line managers work together to lead and manage people within my organisation it is necessary to look at 4 different components. Firstly it is necessary to define the characteristics or role of a line manager, secondly what does it mean to manage, thirdly what it means to lead and finally why and how HR professionals assist line managers to manage and lead. I shall then look at what the human resource department within my organisation does to facilitate line managers to lead and manage which I shall evaluate through examining academic research and case studies to analysis the merits of my organisations practices.
The CIPD defines line manager’s as managers who have first line responsibility for a group of people, they are accountable to a higher level of management and their role will normally include management of people, operational costs, work allocations, processes, quality, customer/clients relations and providing technical expertise. LJ Mullins(“Management & Organisational Behaviour”) describes management as “getting work done through the efforts of other people” Drucker describes management as making things happen . Essentially a line manager is required to direct staff, resources and practices to align with an organisations or departments objectives, a line manager may be a supervisor or have a prefix of senior to the title e.g. Senior Administrator .
Having established what is a line manager it is necessary to explore the difference between management and leadership. Much has been written about the nature of management, Henri Fayol set out 14 basic principles of management which can be grouped under five different managerial activities; planning (how things are to be done and future changes) , organising
Assignment
In order to critically discuss how HR professionals and line managers work together to lead and manage people within my organisation it is necessary to look at 4 different components. Firstly it is necessary to define the characteristics or role of a line manager, secondly what does it mean to manage, thirdly what it means to lead and finally why and how HR professionals assist line managers to manage and lead. I shall then look at what the human resource department within my organisation does to facilitate line managers to lead and manage which I shall evaluate through examining academic research and case studies to analysis the merits of my organisations practices.
The CIPD defines line manager’s as managers who have first line responsibility for a group of people, they are accountable to a higher level of management and their role will normally include management of people, operational costs, work allocations, processes, quality, customer/clients relations and providing technical expertise. LJ Mullins(“Management & Organisational Behaviour”) describes management as “getting work done through the efforts of other people” Drucker describes management as making things happen . Essentially a line manager is required to direct staff, resources and practices to align with an organisations or departments objectives, a line manager may be a supervisor or have a prefix of senior to the title e.g. Senior Administrator .
Having established what is a line manager it is necessary to explore the difference between management and leadership. Much has been written about the nature of management, Henri Fayol set out 14 basic principles of management which can be grouped under five different managerial activities; planning (how things are to be done and future changes) , organising
References: Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, A. (2005) Human Resource Management at Work. 3rd Edition. London. Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Mullins, L.J Harrison, R. (2003) Employee Development – People and Organisations. 2nd Edition. London. Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Watson, G Weightman, J. (2004) Managing People – People and Organisations. 2nd Edition. London. Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Torrington, D Harrison, R. (2005) Learning and Development. 4th Edition. London. Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. CIPD DDI UK (2007) Leadership Transitions – Maximising HR’s Contribution. Online. http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/maneco/leadership/_ldrshptrns.htm. (Accessed: 12 April 2008) Karp, T Saks, A.M., (2006) Antecedents and Consequences of Employee Engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology; Vol. 21 No. 7, pp. 600-619 [Online] Journals online using Emerald (Accessed: 19 April 2008) Espedal, B Crosbie, R. (2005) Learning the soft skills of leadership. Industrial and Commercial Training; Vol. 37 No.1, pp. 45-51 [Online] Journals online using Emerald (Accessed: 19 April 2008)