MGT/521
October 12, 2012
Functional Areas of Business
The pursuit of the MBA focuses on developing leaders in the area of business administration. Business leader development includes the study on functional areas of business and roles that managers take to be effective leaders using this information. This paper will focus on two functional areas of business and also explain the role of the manager in our areas.
Human Resources and Project Management
The first area of business to examine is that of human resources. It is the responsibility of human resources (HR) to attract employees, ensure the employees are trained adequately for their jobs, help employees retain their positions, motivate employees with benefits and incentives, and handle disciplinary issues. Quite literally, this is the job of managing the company’s resource of humans. One reason this area is exciting to study is that the perception and role of HR are evolving. As the nature of business itself changes, the workforce relationship with an employer or corporation needs to change with it. Because of factors like outsourcing, employees working remotely, re-evaluation of benefit packages and the standard nine-to-five work week become less the norm, the human resources departments have had to adapt and change to make sure they can continue to bridge the gap between the workforce and employers.
Instead of simply treated as an administrative position, the HR managerial role is being reformatted as a strategic tool for business (Payne, 2010). “During the 1980s, personnel departments were responsible for handing out applications, providing employees with insurance enrollment forms and processing payroll. The role of the personnel department was mainly administrative” (Mayhew, 2013).More recently, HR managers have begun to look at ways to help employees work to their best potential, thereby benefitting the company with the maximum performance from each team member