The Delivery Of HRM Within The Organisation And The Role Of Line Managers In Delivery Of HR: Implications For Coca Cola

of Selecting Coca Cola

The Coca Cola is one of the leading beverage brand and it has earned competitive image based on its retention of highly skilled employees. The company has evinced that delivery of effective human resource management practices is ensured by active contribution of all members of organization including line managers (Friedman, 2009). The line managers help in offering favourable employment conditions such that greater sense of unity can be ensured. Line managers of the company are in closer interaction with jobs and therefore, the responsibility of job analysis is carried out by them in order to determine required skills in effective manner (Malik, Khan, Shah and Gul, 2010). Therefore, selection of right individual for the right job and then working on description and specification of job also comes under the duties of a line manager. Along with this, the HR department works win integration of line managers for planning and forecasting of human resources. Given these perspectives, it could be argued that Coca Cola is the most suitable organization for studying the contribution of line managers within context of delivering human resource management practices.

Review of Literature

HRM Delivery within Organization

The delivery of human resource management within organization can be carried out successfully based on the “best fit” concept, which provided that HRM practices should be well aligned with the policies and strategies of organization (Datta, Guthrie and Wright, 2005). The concept of vertical alignment also holds substantial importance in implementation of HRM. The literature has asserted that line managers can deliver HRM effectively based on best fit and vertical alignment concept (Ozcelik and Uyargil, 2015).

Contribution of Line Managers in HRM Delivery

It has been seen in the recent stream of literature that line managers play central role in delivery of human resource management (Savaneviciene and Stankeviciute, 2012). Some of the key HR related tasks which are being played by line managers involve the interviewing of individuals for hiring new employees and matching right people with right jobs. They are also held accountable for carrying out performance appraisal of employees as they have most relevant knowledge about the employees working in their supervision. In addition to it, the line managers play the key role of a negotiator and communicate news related to employment to the relevant employees (Edgar, Geare and O'Kane, 2015). In this manner, the line managers are most significant personnel for minimizing resistance among employees during the change management process by openly communicating with employees about prevailing circumstances (Gilbert, De Winne and Sels, 2011). They also act as a middle man between employees and the top level management and communicate the concerns of employees pertaining to salary increase and improvement of working conditions to the relevant authorities.

The line managers apply the human resource management policies on behalf of the organization and are responsible for ensuring greater degree of alignment among the procedures of organization and human resource management procedures (Evans, 2016). The synthesis of information is mainly carried out by line managers as they help in implementation of HR strategies. Moreover, they can offer interpretations of information offered by top and middle managers in the way which have positive impact on minds of subordinates and they can respond positively to change (Ozcelik and Uyargil, 2015). Therefore, it is important to note that line managers have the power to modify behaviours and they can stimulate flexibility among workforce. Likewise, line managers have actively took the responsibility of the discipline management policies of the organization. It has been found that most of major organizations have tended to adopt the practice of encouraging employees to participate in meetings to ensure their significant contribution for achievement of positive outcomes (Wigbels, 2015). Moreover, the evidences have also found about the contribution of line manager in absence management area (Dowling, 2008).They manage sickness and absence issues of employees in an effective manner and also suggest improvements in policies regarding flexible employee practices.

It has been highlighted by the researchers that effective reward program implementation is carried out by line managers as they play the role of planning, coaching and then evaluation of employees performance (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy, 2004). The line managers contribute significantly in reinforcing the employees and motivating them for attaining the level of performance which can help them in achievement of higher rewards. Therefore, the success of any underlying reward program lies in the hands of line managers and their reinforcing abilities can help in gaining positive returns. It has also been asserted that extra role behaviours of employees are mainly enhanced through contribution of line managers who have the potential to create positive working environment for developing employees (Azmi and Mushtaq, 2015). The reduction of employees’ turnover and retention of highly qualified employees is also based on efforts of line managers to enhance employee satisfaction and commitment.

The evidences have indicated that employees trust their immediate managers, which are line managers, more than any other authority figure of the organization and they get inspired by them in the way which is highly beneficial in terms of increased productivity of employees (Storey, 2007). The line managers are referred as standard bearers of the organizational values and in this vein they can be considered as parental figures within organization. Therefore, they can engage employees in their jobs and can inspire them to work with their full potential which is highly beneficial for the organization. Followed by this, the line managers are responsible for setting performance goals and milestones and they can supervise teams and individual employees for efficient achievement of goals. They also provide employees necessary and timely feedback with an aim of highlighting areas of improvement and in this way helps in improvement of employees’ skills (Paul and Anantharaman, 2003). Therefore, on the basis of these evidences, it can be argued that core role of line managers lie in human resource management delivery lies in the fact they can successfully execute HR policies at the ground level.

References

Azmi, F.T. and Mushtaq, S., 2015. Role of line managers in human resource management: empirical evidence from India. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(5), pp.616-639.

Datta, D.K., Guthrie, J.P. and Wright, P.M., 2005. Human resource management and labor productivity: does industry matter?. Academy of Management Journal, 48(1), pp.135-145

Dowling, P., 2008. International human resource management: Managing people in a multinational context. Cengage Learning.

Edgar, F., Geare, A. and O'Kane, P., 2015. The changing dynamic of leading knowledge workers: The importance of skilled front-line managers. Employee Relations, 37(4), pp.487-503.

Evans, S., 2016. HRM and front line managers: the influence of role stress. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-21.

Friedman, B.A., 2009. Human resource management role implications for corporate reputation. Corporate Reputation Review, 12(3), pp.229-244.

Gilbert, C., De Winne, S. and Sels, L., 2011. Antecedents of front-line managers' perceptions of HR role stressors. Personnel Review, 40(5), pp.549-569.

Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L., 2004. Managing human resources. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Malik, T.A., Khan, H.U., Shah, A. and Gul, S., 2010. Perforamnce measurement using distributed perforamnce knowledge management system: empirical case study of coca cola enterprises. International Review of Business Research Papers, 6(1), pp.250-282.

Ozcelik, G. and Uyargil, C., 2015. A conceptual framework for line managers’ HRM implementation effectiveness: integrating social context and AMO theories. Journal of Business Economics and Finance, 4(2).

Paul, A.K. and Anantharaman, R.N., 2003. Impact of people management practices on organizational performance: analysis of a causal model. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14(7), pp.1246-1266.

Savaneviciene, A. and Stankeviciute, Z., 2012. HRM and performance linkage: The role of line managers. Economics and Management, 17(1), pp.390-396.

Storey, J., 2007. Human resource management: A critical text. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Wigbels, C., 2015. Are line managers prepared to manage an aging workforce?: Evidence from HR Managers.