The Human Resource Project

Introduction

            Each company known to the business world have their own body of employees making up the Human Resources group. In this case, it is then obvious that the said group of personnel have a very vital part in a company’s certain activities which help it with its further development and progress. Indeed, as important as a business partner is human resource’s role in a certain company. According to Martinez, “Human Resource groups are the ones handling the very deep veins and blood lines of the company, in short, the said group hold one of the most critical and complex part of managing a business especially big companies” (Martinez, 122). Another writer describes Human Resources this way: “The people that staff and operate an organization … as contrasted with the financial and material resources of an organization. The organizational function that deals with the people …” (Tracey, 14).

            Yes, as any company is surely made up of different individuals as well as different group of people working towards a certain kind of goal, the function of Human Resources is indeed vital for a company’s continuous growth. In this regard, further discussions on the important role of  Human Resources to a company shall be based on the contrasting events happening within the Human Resource groups of the Computer Companies Dell and Compaq which are both among the top selling computer companies in America as well as in the world trade today.

The Essential Function of Human Resources

            Strategic Planning has always been a part of the many responsibilities of the Human Resources. This clearly had been obvious during the years when both Compaq and Dell companies were still starting to become known in the computer manufacturing industry.

Among the main reasons why the Human resources is needed in any company’s beginning years as compared with Dell and Compaq’s situation, is that the said group of ‘decision makers” are the ones who naturally create certain job position for the company as well as choose people to fill the said created positions. Along with these, the responsibility of Human Resources doesn’t simply end upon hiring the employees. It goes a long way with how it deals with the said employees through the years of service they are to render to the company. This includes the responsibility of making it possible for the employees they hired to become more acquainted not only with their jobs but also to the personalities or the authorities who handle their company.

            Surely, this thus involves the existence of both fair and effective rules and regulations for the employees and the authorities in the company. The said rules created by the Human Resources really help in making the relationship of the people within the company more harmonious and productive towards reaching the main goals of the company as a part of one group trying to develop in the business world. Concerning this, the effective use of Human Resources could be shown between the comparison of the business systems used by two main computer manufacturing companies namely Dell and Compaq, which would be closely studied in the paragraphs to follow.

            Compaq started as a part of the growing branches of Texas Instruments. The company’s three senior managers namely Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto have founded it during the year 1982. The Word Compaq had been derived from two words, which were Compatibility and Quality. This became the main principle of the company being implied in everything they do within the company as well as activities designed towards the customers’ satisfaction.

As the Compaq Computer Company had been budding up as a strong business in the computer manufacturing industries, there had been many changes along the way, which the company needed to face in its way to further company progress. To be able to do this, the company’s Human Resource group has been engaged in making possible adjustments for both employees as well as company officials in order to meet their needs as well as the need of the company to meet the goal profit of the business.

            Along the way of development, Compaq had been merging with other different computer-related companies in order to stretch the services they ought to offer their customers as well as to further more increase the profit they are already making. During the year 2001, Compaq decided to merge their company with Hewlett Packard, which is also a computer manufacturing company.  However, not as quite expected result from the merging move of Compaq, the company began to loose their shares to Hewlett-Packard’s sales as well as brand name. Many products of Compaq were changed to HP’s brand name. In addition, a lot of the market share of the said company had been lost to Dell Company.

            How could a very promising and supposed strong company fall into such situation? The lack of strategic ways in which the Human Resource of the Company could have faced the new challenges brought about by the company’s merging with another strong computer company may have been one of the reasons for such a downfall. More likely, it could be observed that the approach used by Compaq’s Human Resources in educating their employees regarding the changes within the company systems and rules haven’t been clearly introduced and the systems which the new company uses may have been a big challenge for Compaq’s old rules of business. Of course, the said fall has not been totally the Human Resources fault, but because they are the ones having control over almost 75% of the company’s socially related activities as well as internal personnel relationship responsibilities.

            On the other hand, Dell Computer Company is doing a good job as far as its human resources are concerned. During the year 1985, Michael Dell founded the computer company thinking that selling personal computing needs to customers would give the customers a more effective and efficient way of computing. As years continue to pass the said growing business of Mr. Dell, the company had been renowned world wide to be among the top selling computer companies all over the globe. How is this possible? One of the key reasons to the company’s success is the existence of a very systematic design of an organization. Unlike that of Compaq’s organizational structure, specific tasks had been distributed to different committees within the Dell Company for them to be able to function well at their given company assignments.

            The said division are Audit Committee, the Compensation Committee, the Finance Committee, the Governance and Nominating Committee and the Anti trust Committee. The five committees mentioned herein have their own respective tasks towards the company’s effective system. The Audit Committee is responsible for the accounting, auditing and reporting activities needed during the company meetings. The Compensation Committee is responsible for the approval of the fair compensation given to the company CEO as well as to other employees of the company. The Finance Committee on the other hand is handling the proposal of mergers as well as other financial matters wherein the company is presently engaged. The Governance and Nominating Committee handles the different electoral activities within the company. This includes the nominating of the board of members of the company as well as high officials such as the CEO and the many Vice presidents of each Dell branch all over the world. Finally, the

Anti Trust Committee is the one making sure that the company does not go beyond any business law especially that their branches are spread worldwide and are subjected to different laws of different countries. Indeed, the systematic arrangement of Dell’s human resource is obviously different from that of Compaq’s company arrangement. The instance on which all the responsibilities are jammed up in only one group of people will surely make things harder to meet and goals harder to reach for a company dreaming to be big and successful in the global trade. On the other hand, the effective division of responsibilities among groups of people who would handle certain specific tasks would really make the work of the human resources a pretty easy job. Surely, a company adopting such an arrangement could expect that matters regarding the company’s progress would be perfectly laid down in their own places.

            As to what has been shown, it is obvious that the importance of strategic approach concerning the performance of the human resource in a company is a very vital part in an organization’s future growth. Yes, the present trends in which Human Resources could be efficiently performing as a company’s business partner is clearly shown through the example of Dell Company’s systematic approach to business.

            Yet, further more improvements could be applied for the human resources functions in order to meet the needs of present companies involved in the global trade.

Effective Ways of Managing People

            One of the highest concerns of any company is regarding the most effective way in which it could be able to manage the people making up its strong organization. The Human Resources Department of a company is the one handling the said responsibility. The details above regarding the companies Dell and Compaq, it is clearly shown how and effective management of the company’s people directly affects the development of any organization.

            Once the people are clearly taken care of not only in terms of the salary or labor wage given to them but also through the necessary skill or education they need to improve as individual parts of the company, an organization is sure to take great steps towards improvement. As this role of the Human Resource Department moves the company’s people to become loyal both to the company and to the authorities making it possible for them to enjoy their job in the most possible way there is.

            There are several guidelines which may help any Human Resource Department to effectively manage the people of any organization. According to Esdras Martinez, here are some necessary guidelines to be implemented in people management by the Human Resources:

• Consider the employees’ needs and wants as well as their expectations from the organization.
• The employees are the stake holders every time a company undergoes any changes. If there are any necessary changes needed to be taken by the company, the employees are the very people needed to be informed and be given any necessary training. This too would help the employees gain a level of self satisfaction from the job they do.
• Finally, making it possible for the employees to get the best out of the organization which they really ought to receive. This would make them feel that they are special and would thus move them to cooperate with the entire systems of the organization.

Several Steps Designed for Human Resources’ Development

            Human Resources, as mentioned earlier carry so many responsibilities towards the company’s existence. Most of the human interactions within and even outside the company had been among the big responsibilities of the said sector of the company (Price, 21).

            True, meeting the said challenges is never easy. This is why strategic approach towards the said responsibilities is strongly encouraged to be applied in the functions of human resources (Thomson, 114). The approach used in Dell Company is a proven effective way in facing the challenges of business. Aside from subdividing the responsibility, coming up with certain classifications on who would be put as a part of the team who would handle specific responsibilities. In this way, people who have specific skills are properly matched with the tasks they are supposed to complete. It is also in this way that the company is going to be able to disperse properly its people letting them function in the best ways they can.

            One more way in which to improve Human Resources is through the innovation of new technologies. Many new companies emerging in the present business world are subjected to becoming a part of virtual organizations such as Internet businesses. Having to face challenges as this is would naturally require a more flexible rather than direct Human Resource approach. The wide range of the Human Resource responsibility’s scope should challenge the said sector of the company to get ample knowledge on how people work through the net (Camarinha-Matos, 15). And since people around the globe could easily lie through the internet, it is very important for the HR personnel to become much aware with the frauds present in the in the said cyber world business.

Rules and regulations of virtual organizations are also designed to carefully manage people even beyond distance (Tracey, 15). Both customer and employee grievances must be given ample time to be discussed and investigated by the HR people within the scopes of their power provided by the business world in cyber space. As mentioned earlier, many companies today prefer to introduce their company and their business through the net. And with this, there is an important factor to be considered on the human resources’ side. One of which is that every personnel assigned to take over the tasks of the human resource should be carefully trained in meeting the challenges of handling disputes and issues of employees found from the different parts of the world without necessarily meeting them in person. Creative and strategic ways in making this happen should be adapted by the assigned personnel.

            True, this kind of responsibility is not as easy as it may seem. Again, people who are to be designated by company owners to work in this area of the company relations should be carefully screened and chosen (Martinez, 122). Only those who are qualified to deal with people through the internet with full responsibility and professionalism should be allowed to take the job. This should be closely attended by ones who would appoint the people for the position, as this would mean the continuous existence of their company within the global trade as well as the e-business world. Having the most efficient people to work on the job would make the company more prosperous in the end.

An Efficient Business Partner

            Yes, the Human Resource Department is a company’s business partner in attaining success. Today, the existence of virtual organization further proves the importance of the existence of HR people within an organization. Especially concerning “Displaced

Organizations”, this is characterized by a business company being scattered around the world and yet connected through information technology or the internet. In this manner, HR personnel are expected to serve as a direct connection of both customers and employees to the administration.

            Usually, it is the HR which receives and handles several grievances or comments between customers, employees as well as the administration. Without HR, transactions may become a clutter making it impossible for a certain business organization to continue to thrive within the cyber business.

            True, may it be a cyber organization or a traditional organizational set up, the human resource group handles so much responsibility in which without them it may even be said impossible for any organization to exist. Indeed, handling and managing people has a very great effect on how a company thrives in its own field. The competitive capability of an organization too depends on how well it is able to give its people what they really need and expect from the management. This is where the role of human resources is strongly needed.

            As seen from the examples of Dell and Compaq Computer Manufacturing Companies, the effective usage of the efficient performance displayed by a company’s human resource makes it possible for an organization to determine its stability within the business community. Human Resource is really an important business partner for any organization.

Conclusion

            People are the blood line of any business organization. Whether they come from the external relationships of the company which may refer to the customers, or they may come from the internal relationships of the company which in turn may refer to the employees, these people are the ones making it possible for any company to exist.

            This is why the management of the people involved within the company’s scope of activities is a very important part of business growth. Yes, the Human Resources handles the most crucial, complex and yet considerably most exiting part of any organization. This is because, everyone in the Human Resources are encouraged to use both their creativity and passion for their career to be able to succeed in this certain job.

An Annotated Bibliography

Martinez, Esdras. (2002). Human Resources Management: A new Approach. Manila,

Philippines. The author has completely outlined the necessary skills of an efficient

Human Resource Personnel in this book. HE points out how each person aiming to make it to the new wave of the business world today should be able to adjust to the needs of the job as well.

Tracey, William. (2003). Human Resources Glossary. Boca Raton, Florida. This book

 carefully tries to define terms used within the discussions on Human Resources.

It has been proven a real help by many readers who do not completely understand the technicalities involved within the responsibilities of the Human Resource personnel.

Luis M. Camarinha-Matos. (2004). Virtual Organizations: Systems and Practices. Spring

            Street, New York.  An introduction to the real happening in a virtual organization

indeed clears several doubts regarding the possibilities of having Human

Resources exist on such new set up of organizations. This book introduces how vital the Human Resource group is to virtual companies.

Price, A.J. (2005). Human Resource Development: Strategy and tactics. Burlington,

Massachusetts. The clear description of the principles used in the management of

people by the Human Resources is a real help in making an organization’s progress quite clear to the vision. This book helps a lot in showing the importance of Human Resources to any organization there is.

Thomson, R. (2002). Developing Human Resources, Published in association with the

Institute of Management. Burlington, Massachusetts. This book shows the definite

make up of real human resource personnel. The importance of understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses and how it could be applied to the team in business is one of the key characteristics of an HR according to the author.