1.3. The Role of Front Line Managers in HRM
The engagement of line managers in HRM activities has been widely noted in literature (Renwick, 2002). The CIPD (2015) described line managers and front line managers’ HR responsibilities as to managing single employees, or teams. Gennard and Kelly (1997) argued that through the HRM paradigm, giving back the responsibility of people management to line managers would improve the organisation’s competitiveness in the product market. Similarly, Cunningham and Hyman (1999) discussed that this devolution of HRM responsibilities to front line managers, would promote an integrative culture of employee management which would secure commitment from subordinates. However, as Brewster and Larsen (2000) argued, the greater involvement of line managers in HRM has to be referred to the organisations’ policies of cost cutting; the speed of …show more content…
For instance, FLMs are involved in interactions with other individuals in other positions of the hierarchy, referred to as role partners, who delineate what are the expectations of behaviour for the holder of the role (Merton, 1968). The role partners for FLMs are HR professionals, senior managers, co-workers and front-line employees. On the other hand, one of the biggest influences that FLMs and line managers experience in HRM, lies in the continuous upgrading of technology. As Papalexandris and Panayotopoulou (2003) argued, improvements in IT significantly simplify the HR processes, and can help to deliver HR services to line managers, in order to involve them into the day-to-day HR activities. Moreover, the use of IT tools led front line managers to deal with HR tasks without any assistance of the HR departments (Renwick and MacNeil, 2002; Brewster and Larsen,
The engagement of line managers in HRM activities has been widely noted in literature (Renwick, 2002). The CIPD (2015) described line managers and front line managers’ HR responsibilities as to managing single employees, or teams. Gennard and Kelly (1997) argued that through the HRM paradigm, giving back the responsibility of people management to line managers would improve the organisation’s competitiveness in the product market. Similarly, Cunningham and Hyman (1999) discussed that this devolution of HRM responsibilities to front line managers, would promote an integrative culture of employee management which would secure commitment from subordinates. However, as Brewster and Larsen (2000) argued, the greater involvement of line managers in HRM has to be referred to the organisations’ policies of cost cutting; the speed of …show more content…
For instance, FLMs are involved in interactions with other individuals in other positions of the hierarchy, referred to as role partners, who delineate what are the expectations of behaviour for the holder of the role (Merton, 1968). The role partners for FLMs are HR professionals, senior managers, co-workers and front-line employees. On the other hand, one of the biggest influences that FLMs and line managers experience in HRM, lies in the continuous upgrading of technology. As Papalexandris and Panayotopoulou (2003) argued, improvements in IT significantly simplify the HR processes, and can help to deliver HR services to line managers, in order to involve them into the day-to-day HR activities. Moreover, the use of IT tools led front line managers to deal with HR tasks without any assistance of the HR departments (Renwick and MacNeil, 2002; Brewster and Larsen,