Monday, September 8, 2008

Supervisory Responsibility for Human Resources Management

Okay, I have a question that came up in a course I teach in HR Management for the University of Phoenix. This course is for undergraduate students working on their bachelor's degree in business administration. The question is who is supposed to be managing human resources? Is it the human resources department? Or is it all the supervisors and managers in the organization?

In the broadest sense I spend much of my work day training, coaching, mentoring and guiding first line supervisors in how to deal with human resources issues in their departments. I truly see a Human Resources Department role as supplying the plans, strategies, procedures, tools, resources that managers need in order to do day in and day out Human Resources Management.

In my opionion, the HR Department does not manage the human resources of the organization - they are the providers of the organizational infrastructure used by supervisors and managers. I thought this point was stressed throughout the course in every functional discussion of HRM. Yet, I found that in the very last class when I asked who manages a company's human resources - the response was "The Human Resources Department."

I'm wondering if this means that in asserting our profession over the last 20 or so years, we have allowed supervisors to abdicate their human resources management responsibilities? Or perhaps I've got it all wrong - maybe HR is supposed to be managing the human resources of a company, so that supervisors and managers just need to manage the operational deliverables.

Let me know what you think: www.skysthelimit-hr.com

Cheers,
Sandra

3 comments:

  1. I think it depends on the organization, meaning it seems some organizations prefer to have the control and delivery stem from the human resource department and others treat human resources more as a consulting/training function. My gut reaction is that the front line supervisors are responsible for managing human resources. I believe in my role, working for Utah State Government, I've been offered training and guidance and consulting sessions through Human Resources Department, but ulitmately I need to manager the human resource functions... as tough and uncomfortable as they can become!

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  2. Kim, I Agree with you. Human resource management involves all the things a supervisor should be doing to hire and keep the people with the talents needed for the job. The Human Resources Department is there to facilitate that happening. Many HR professionals disagree with me, however and stick to the view that human resources management is DONE by the HR Department.

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