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Running Head: HUMAN RESOURCES ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Human Resources Roles and Responsibilities
Edward Charfauros
Human Resources Management MGT/431
May 2, 2012
Arlene McConville
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HUMAN RESOURCES ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
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Human Resources Roles and Responsibilities
Human resources management is balancing two extremes: 1.) Hiring only people with the
precise qualifications suiting the organizations wants and needs, 2.) Training and developing
employees to meet the organizations wants and needs. Majority of expanding organizations end
up in between the two extremes. For example, organizations hire the best people HRM can
locate and afford after recognizing the organizations want to train and develop its employees
(current and new) as it expands.
Human Resources Management (HRM) responds in various ways upon diversity, ebusiness, ethics, globalization, and technology. HRM functions within organizations focusing
upon management of, recruitment of, and direction for people working within organizations.
Line managers also perform HRM in accordance to organization’s missions and objectives.
Organizations for many years rely on personnel departments to manage its employees.
Personnel departments primary concerns include salary, benefits, and attendance records.
Therefore, personnel departments do not consider the importance of employee’s contributions to
organizations. These contributions include intellectual capital and diversity, as organizations
globally expand, organizations realize the importance of its human resources department; thus
the outgrowth of human resources management within every type of organization worldwide.
Globalization Response
As organizations enter upon global markets, organizations comprehend the importance of
HRM upon diverse working groups, employee skills, goal setting, management, and objectives.
Organizations are centralizing its HRM departments (including global markets) into one
department with international and regional staffing. Centralization will have human resources

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HUMAN RESOURCES ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
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managers recognize employee differences between one another concerning areas of religion,
ethnicity, and culture.
According to the article, employee recruitment and retention part 1 - recruiting strategies
by T. Dossenbach (2007). “There is a direct relationship between employee recruitment and
employee retention. The type of person you recruit will ultimately determine the pool of
employees you need to retain. Similarly, the employee pool you need to retain can profoundly
affect your recruitment efforts” (introduction, p. 31, para. 1).
Technology Response
Human resources managers recognize technological advances as organizations have
employees work within sectors requiring higher education and specific training (quality
management, manufacturing, and engineering). Human resources managers respond effectively
by developing and encouraging innovation and creativity by well train employees. Human
resources managers require improving the process of communication to develop new programs,
programs of improvement for continual education, and staff realignment.
An example response by HRM using a computer-base expert according to the article,
keeping up with changing technology - human resources management by CBS reporter R. B.
Frantzreb (1998). “Computer-based expert knowledge will be at hand to assist in formulating
personnel policies, scheduling employees, diagnosing individual and organizational performance
problems, guiding careers, and performing many other HR functions” (p. 1, para. 10).
Diversity Response
An increasingly diverse workforce is the challenge organizations deal with today as
organizations enter the labor market with an equal amount of ethnicities. Human resources

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managers are assuming responsibility by ensuring no person becomes a victim of discrimination.
Human resources managers comprehend and recognize employees as intellectual capital,
including employee’s abilities, ethics/morals, and expertise. These employees contribute heavily
toward workforces as valuable assets. Ideal human resources managers respect cultures,
ethnicities, genders, religions, and people.
According to the Human Resources at UC Berkeley website by University of California,
Berkeley (2012). “Managing diversity means acknowledging people's differences and
recognizing these differences as valuable; it enhances good management practices by preventing
discrimination and promoting inclusiveness. Good management alone will not necessarily help
you work effectively with a diverse workforce” (management process section, p. 1, para. 3).
E-Business Response
Electronic business (E-business) enables product and service purchases, bank
transactions, transactions between individuals, and transactions between organizations upon the
Internet. Human resources manager’s challenges (abilities, competence, health, and skill
requirement updates) continue to increase because of business conduct upon the Internet.
Human resources managers recruit and train employees to meet position requirements (abilities,
competence, health, and skills).
Technology advances rapidly benefits everyone, especially E-business, according to the
journal of electronic commerce research, vol. 11, no. 4 title, electronic human resources
management in an E-business environment by Laumer, Eckhardt, and Weitzel (2010).
“Advances in information and communication technology and the ubiquity of the Internet can
offer substantially new ways to attract and recruit talent and to organize a firms entire HR
function. Hence, Electronic HRM (E-HRM) can give a firm a substantial competitive edge in a

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tough market for skills by establishing a better talent management capability” (1. From HRM to
E-HRM section, p. 241, para. 1).
Ethics Response
HRM manages relationships between groups of employers, managers, and employees.
This process raises questions concerning each party’s rights and responsibility within the
relationships and the constitution for fair treatment. These are ethical questions in nature
focusing on debates concerning human resource management ethics.
Organizations ensure its departments behave ethically, as its human resources managers
maintain appropriate ethical behavior while enforcing ethic policies. Human resources managers
implement training programs to educate employees with moral behavior, ethic comprehension,
and workplace conduct.
According to the article report, secretariat: managerial response to globalization by the
United Nations (2000). “Sound human resources management and development in the public
sector are the key to success and to optimization of results. Sound human resources management
encompasses both static (recruitment, retention, motivation) and dynamic (professional
development, adjustment to changing organizational requirements, esprit de corps) functions”
(introduction, p. 2, para. 5).
Conclusion
The human resources management role continues dealing with many changes. Human
resources management no longer remains just as a personnel department concerning itself with
salary, benefits, and attendance records. Instead, human resources managers are essentially
involving him or herself upon every aspect of an organization’s business among every
department. Organizations recognize its human resources managers as very important personnel

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toward its continual success of its business. Therefore, organizations ensure human resources
managers are subject matter experts concerning diversity, E-business, ethics, globalization, and
technology.
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References
Dossenbach, T. (2007). Employee recruitment and retention part 1 - recruiting strategies.
Retrieved from http://www.iswonline.com
Frantzreb, R. B. (1998). Keeping up with changing technology - human resource management.
Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_n3_v43/ai_20514404/
University of California, Berkeley. (2012). Management process. Retrieved from
http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/guides/managing-hr/interaction/diversity/process
Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2010). Electronic human resources management in an
e-business environment. Retrieved from
www.csulb.edu/web/journals/jecr/issues/20104/Paper0.pdf
United Nations. (2000). Secretariat: Managerial response to globalization. Retrieved from
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan000568.pdf
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