The Profession of Human Resource Management, Research Paper Example

Leadership and management are linked together and are very complementary but they are not the same thing. Leadership is inspiring, motivating and guiding while managing is coordinating, organizing and administering.  The profession of human resource management (HRM) combines both leadership and management into an artful and scientific marriage which allows for nearly unlimited potential for career growth opportunities. HRM places the HR leader in the front of a team to promote and achieve strategic intent and leadership philosophy. It is the role of the HR manager to lead the planning, implementation, sustainment, training, on-boarding, resource allocation and leadership interactions for the entire team.  The management of all of the moving parts involves tenacity, endurance, coolness under pressure and intelligence.  In order to achieve these laudable goals, the HRM team needs to understand the strategic intent of the organization as well as the tactical and operational activities that are required to build the talent of the organization.

Key Theories

Within talent management there is the opportunity to define, source and grow talent.  Talent is basically the intricate compilation of the employee’s skills, knowledge, cognitive ability and potential (Tansley 291).  In order to understand the theories and framework around talent management it is important to first understand what talent management is.  Talent has different core meanings based upon who is looking for or defining the talent.  Each end business user has an idea of the type of talent that they need and will utilize the Human Resource Management sector to find an organizational definition to provide that framework for that type of talent.  In this regard talent refers to the characteristics of the person but talent can also refer to the person themselves.  This is where the strategic intent and framework for talent management comes into place.  These characteristics that are presented by an individual are not only inherent within the individual but also skills that were practiced and honed by that same individual.  The framework and theories of talent management revolve around the ability for the person to commit their abilities to the organization, the fit of the individual with the organization and the organization with the individual and ultimately the ability to showcase and execute with the skills the individual has (Gallard-Gallardo, E., Dries, N., and Golzalez-Cruz 2).  Talent management is a primary responsibility of human resources and is becoming increasingly important in organization’s business strategy.

Talent management is a way to build and enforce the strategy and policies of the organization.  By building a talent pool that can execute the goals and objectives of the organization the opportunities for success are exponentially grown.  The ability to recruit, build and sustain talent in an organization falls primarily on the Human Resources department.  This responsibility is executed through direct interaction with the people in the organization as well as their chain of command.  The Human Resource department has the direct and indirect capability to develop the environment for talent stimulation as well as by providing leadership the tools to promote talent throughout the organization.  Knowing the business is the best way to understand where the gaps are in talent and how to find the right people for the right positions.  This also includes training and promoting talent internally through advancement opportunities, training and expansion roles.  Along with the theory of developing and retaining talent through a basis of talent management there is also the tenant that the Human Resource Management employees play critical leadership roles within the organization.

Common Concepts to the Frameworks

While many of the concepts revolve around key characteristics there is always a different take on what talent actually is referring.  There are also differences on the ultimate roles and responsibilities that are assigned to the leadership of the organization as well as within the human resource function of the organization.  The intent to align the business goals with the talent and resources to achieve those goals is what the end state needs to accomplish but it can vary in which who carriers the burden for implementation.  In the growing and dynamic global market, there are many decisions and challenges for talent management (Collins, Scullion, and Vaiman 925).  The meaning of talent as well as the meaning of talent management is the biggest differentiators among the theories.  The important aspect of talent management theories is to find the common denominator and allow the human resource function to utilize their talents to fulfill the intent of the organization.  Within the human resource function there are metrics that drive action.  These metrics are based on providing, developing and managing the people within the organization.  There is also the inherent need to build a high performance organization and the human resource function has the tools to do such a task.  Within some of the theories reviewed there are multiple touch points that are required within talent management.  Recruiting talented people is just one factor in talent management.  If the talented individual is not properly managed and grown once inside the organization their benefit is lost.  By not harnessing the talent, the opportunity to build a highly successful organization is lost (Coulson-Thomas 429).  The talent management, from initiation to fruition, is a strategy for the organization and must be managed and molded through each phase of the employee’s career.

There are specific cornerstones to each of the theories and frameworks previously discussed.  These include the focus on leadership, communication, integrity and adaptability.  Leadership is composed of multiple characteristic traits both tangible and intangible all of which synergize together to give certain individuals the ability to lead and promote ideas better than others.  Although not all of the qualities will be discussed here I will cover the five most influential and impactful traits that would impact the Human Resource profession as a whole and would be needed to achieve the upper echelon of HR leadership.  These include:

The main elements of the human resource theories span communication, integrity, honesty, change management and adaptability.  These three elements are essential tools for implementing my human resource leadership philosophy of developing the right people for the right position at the right time.  The ability to seek out key talent, align the talent with the organization and continually monitor and control the talent’s alignment with the organizations goals and objectives takes a multitude of skills and abilities by the HRM function.  There is a common set of core capabilities that resonates throughout the talent management frameworks each of which facilitate fit, capability and growth for talent.  There is a need for a managed relationship for the culture, strategy and change within the organization (Crews and Scherron 2013).

Communication

Communication is a fundamental leadership competency due to the fact that without it all other competencies would never see the light of day.  The main elements of communication include what needs to be conveyed, how it is conveyed and how it is received.  Three aspects of communication for the human resource theories include fostering successful communication is interpersonal, active listening and feedback.  Communication also comes in many forms and functions.  Mastery of the oratory communication skillset is only partial completion of the communication gamut.  Business communication includes web-based, texts, email, instant messaging, video conferencing, static reports, dashboards, business forums, presentations, white papers and last but not least, face-to-face meetings.  Communication within the human resource environment allows the thoughts, ideas and intent to be conveyed to peers, subordinates and leaders.  An understanding on how communication is important to the business success is vital because communication is the life blood of the business as a whole.  Communication up and down the chain of command as well as cross-functionally builds stronger relationships and provides the highways for the vessel of information to travel.

Communication is made up of multiple aspects which include: thinking, listening, speaking and non-verbal actions.  All four of which must be mastered by a manager to be an effective leader (Maxwell 114).  The effects of poor communication have tremendous impacts on meeting or surpassing business objectives.  In order for the communication to be properly relayed it is imperative the message makes it through the noise of the business environment to the intended recipients as anticipated.  Poor communication leads to inefficiency, deceased innovation and poor products or services delivered to the customer.  Communication of the whole picture and not just a small snip it is important regarding HRM because as a leader it is part of the role and responsibility to lead the way and provide a clear picture of the goals, objectives and way ahead. Within Human resource management, there is more to achieving a successful talent management framework than putting together a list of employee criteria.  The objective of the HRM is to establish the right talent in the right place at the right time. That is all for naught if the goals, objectives and deliverables are not communication throughout the organization while providing line of sight the end state as well as insight into the current progress and potential roadblocks.  Through the review of many projects post-implementation reviews communication crops up to the top of the area’s in need of work section (PMI 432).

Integrity and Honesty

“Historically, unethical, corrupt, and illegal practices have been part and parcel of doing business for centuries, in spite of the considerable damage of such activities have caused” (Forster 448). Integrity is a leadership skill that surpasses the test of time.  It should be easy to understand the term integrity and its ramifications when utilizing or not utilizing its intentions.  When something has integrity it is whole.  The integrity of a system means that it has all of its pieces and can function.  When something is without integrity it is missing components and does not function as it is originally intended to do.  If a wheel is missing pieces it is no longer a complete system with integrity and it will quickly become out of round, lose functionality and eventually stop working.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.  This seems like an easy value to maintain but it can be tested on a daily basis in which one misstep at any point will put the character and integrity into question which would mitigate and potentially destroy all business acumen the individual accumulated in his or her career.  Holding a person’s integrity as a number one value will ensure the decisions are based on honesty, good intentions and for all the right reasons.  Integrity is important to the business both in perception by the public as well as internal business operations and stakeholders.  The business goals, objectives and strategies coupled with leadership decisions impact the employees, customers and themselves. Business leaders make decisions that will provide a ripple effect throughout the organization and have a far impacting reach.  Leadership leads. They must lead by example even when the decisions are hard.  Living and breathing with business integrity results in employees down the chain of command following the suit of integrity.

Within the HRM community there is the integrity and honesty of the HRM community themselves but also the integrity of the talent in which they manage.  This common thread was alluded to in many of the talent management theories due to the fact that if an integrity violation occurred it would undermine the business’s ethical persona and would impact their business model.  The understanding of the impact of integrity in the business is important because without integrity the framework of the business culture is in jeopardy of collapse.  An example of how integrity greatly impacts business is that of the Enron financial/accounting misrepresentation and subsequent demise and bankruptcy.  Integrity or the lack thereof, plays a major role in the overall demise of Enron.  In the early 1990’s the energy market was continuing to deregulate which left many opportunities for growth in the energy market.  Enron, being an energy company, began to purchase multiple assets on liability which in itself was not a violation of integrity.  Enron was purchasing the assets on liability and placing the bills on limited liability entities held outside of Enron and their financial reporting.  While the liabilities were held outside of the books the profits and assets were reported which inflated operating profit, market share and stock price.  All of Enron’s profits were inflated or entirely falsified.  The lack of integrity has led to the financial ruin of many employees, families and businesses.  The decision to sweep the principles and moral integrity under the rug devastated many people in the wake of the scandal.  Integrity is paramount and making the right decision when no one is looking leads to a strong foundation in personal and business transactions (Easy guide to understanding ENRON scandal summary 1).

Integrity as discussed is doing the right thing in any circumstance even if it is difficult.  Knowing what integrity is and implementing it are two different aspects.  The leader’s core values guide their actions and integrity is the compass the direction is sought.  So when an object does not have integrity it does not work as intended and in order to achieve the objectives and strategic goals of leadership the business unit and leader must have a bridge of workability built with integrity.  In order to maintain integrity the leader must be held to a higher standard and his or her word carries the validity of their honor.  The leader’s word is made up of multiple parts.  They include: What the leaders says.  The knowledge held by the person saying it.  The expectations or results are expressed and what the leader says will happen and what they will accomplish. All of these are combined into one’s word or honor when stating what will occur. This is a fragile piece of communication which through trials and tribulations gains validity or loses all value based on the integrity of the person stating it (Crosby 4). Integrity is honoring your word, doing what you said, when you said it, how you said it and delivering what you said. As a project manager and leader it is delivering the project on time, on budget and within specifications while maintaining expectations of the stakeholders, business leaders, employees and customers. This does not mean that every project will meet the schedule but it does mean that every project manager and leader will need to communicate the project’s health will utmost truthfulness and integrity without pushing the negative aspects off such as the case of Enron and their financial derivations to the truth.

With a foundation of integrity, the expectations are set high within the walls of the leadership role.  The leader upholding his or her integrity will be expected to do what they said they would do, do it to the best of their ability and know-how, performed to expectations or informed the stakeholders of the gap between expectations and performance all while achieving this within the timeframe the leader said they would complete it.  If any of this cannot be met it is up to the leader to address the deficiency in a timely manner and how to mitigate the gap.  In a financial perspective on maintaining integrity, the long-term cost of compromising the integrity is exponentially larger than that of the short-term gain.  Business leaders make overarching decisions on how to conduct business and working with integrity encapsulates the decision and prevents potential ramifications from the short-term gain.  The backbone of the business goals established in integrity, allow the workability bridge to performance to span from the functional, operational and strategic leaders to the customers and shareholders of the company (Forester, 24).  The project manager leads the projects to meet the goals of the business and needs a firm foundation in integrity to make the tough decisions and provide sound leadership to the project team.

Change Management and Adaptability

Adaptability is essential to all aspects of life but becomes even more inherent and important when a leadership role is undertaken.  Adaptability and facilitating change management allows the leader to go to the problem area, recognize the issue, resolve the problem or build a mitigation plan to lessen the impact of the troubled area while also ensuring issues do not exponentially negatively impact the business or people as a result of the leadership change implemented.  It is imperative to understand the root cause of the change especially in a role that will have a great ripple effect on the business as a whole.  Remedying the symptoms will only lessen the pain for a short time but overall does not fix the problem at hand and could potentially lead to a larger unmanageable problem in the future.  Adapting to issues and variables in business is an advanced skillset that is hard to measure or quantify. Change management and adaptability to the environment requires the person to figure out what happened, why it happened and how to reduce the likelihood that it will happen again.  This also eliminates the need to put on daily fire watch and conduct immediate response fire drills to conduct business.  Constant fire-fighting puts strain on the employees and hinders productivity of the operating unit and business entity.

Leadership in Human resources requires the soft skills of adapting and overcoming issues on a daily basis because the medium of work is dynamic and multi-faceted.  In the HR role, certain problems will arise due to the impression that employees are not doing their job either because they are capable or because they are cognitively negligent.  In either case it is up to the HR leader to utilize their management expertise to understand the actual issue, perform an informal or formal root cause analysis and carry out the actions either directly or by leading the correction team to the solution. This ability to lead and manage change directly correlates to the capability to manage talent, grow the organization and align the culture of the organization with the talent needed to meet the goals and objectives outlined by leadership.

Conclusion

Talent management requires leadership, integrity and the ability to remain agile (Pruis, 210).  The theories outlined in talent management may have disparate definitions of talent but the overall objectives to align the needs of the organization with the people and resources required to achieve those goals and objectives remains the same. The life cycle of talent management includes the identification, acquisition, development and alignment of resources.  Each encapsulates distinct requirements but all are vital to effectively and efficiently managing the talent of the organization. The key skillsets that resonate throughout the human resource field and frameworks are the enhanced ability to lead, clear and constructed communication skills and the ability to remain agile through a dynamic and evolving business environment.  The theories and frameworks of talent management vary but the essence to grow and mature talent within the organization while also ensuring the resources are appropriated to the right place at the right time remain consistent pillars in talent management.

Works Cited

Collins, D., Scullion, H., and Vaiman, V. Talent management decision making. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2012. Print.

Crews, D., and Scherron, R. Aligning culture with human resource strategies. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2013. Print.

Crosby, J. Target puts credit card portfolio back on the block. Star Tribune, January 13, 2011. Print.

Coulson-Thomas, C., Talent management and building high performance organisations. University of Greenwich, Water Newton, UK, 2012. Print.

Easy guide to understanding ENRON scandal summary. Finance.laws.com. Finance Laws, n.d., 28 December 2011. Web.

Forester, N. Maximum Performance: a practical guide to leading and managing people at work. Edward Elgar Publishing. 2011

Gallard-Gallardo, E., Dries, N., and Golzalez-Cruz, T. What is the meaning of talent in the world of work? Human Resource Management Review. 2013. Print.

Maxwell, J. C. The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008. Web.

Project Management Institute (PMI). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Project Management Institute, 2008. Print.

Pruis, E. The five key principles for talent management. Industrial and Commercial Training, 2010. Print.

Tansley, C., Turner, P., Carley, F., Harris, L., Sempik, A., and Stewart, J. Talent: Strategy, management, measurement.London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 2007. Print.