Managing human resource is a coursework for HND in business for students pursuing HND course. HND assignment help offers high quality assignment help for students at discounted prices.

1. Managing Human resource
Harrods

2. Table of Contents
Table of Contents........................................................................................................................................5

3. LO 1 Understand the different perspectives of human resource management
There are five different perspectives to human resource management which are as
under:
 Normative approach: Normative approach base itself on Hard HRM and soft
HRM concepts through which HRM strategies are applied.
 Critical approach: Critical approach to human resource management is against
the normative approach and contradicts the theory proposed in normative
approach.
 Behavioural approach: Behavioural approach to human resource management
focuses on employee attitude and behaviour to suit strategies so that desired
performance can be attained (Merkle, 2007).
 System approach: System approach to human resource management advocates
for competencies management, behaviour management and setting up
mechanism for technology.
 Agency of transaction cost: Human resource department of the organization
need to adopt an approach which can minimize transaction cost for the
organization.
P1.1- Explain how the Guests model of HRM is adopted at Harrods.

4. Guest model of HRM followed at Harrods have six major parameters which are given
as below:
 HRM strategy: HRM strategy adopted at Harrods is to make higher employee
engagement as this would ensure the organizational success. Harrods have
focus on enhancing employee engagement as organization understands that an
engaged employee can perform much better in comparison to other employees.
 HRM practice: HRM practice adopted at Harrods includes recruitment &
selection, performance and development. Aim of recruitment & selection
processes adopted at Harrods is to attract suitable new employees while
performance enables their employee to work in accordance with the employee
abilities and get desired results (Mayo, 2005). Employee development is done
through identification of career progression opportunities for the employees at
Harrods. HRM practices adopted at Harrods should be such that career
development can be done for the employees.
 HRM outcomes: Through HRM practices there are two vital results which have
been obtained by Harrods and these are commitment and quality. Commitment
and quality both are resultant of their HRM strategy of higher employee
engagement. Harrods needs to ensure high organizational performance by
understanding employees need and maintain Harrods value.
 Behaviour outcomes: There are four behavioural outcomes obtained by Harrods
by deploying best HR practices and these behavioural outcomes include
motivation among employees, cooperation, employee engagement and
organizational citizenship.
 Performance outcomes: Through HRM practices and HRM strategy adopted by
Harrods organization is successful in obtaining key performance outcomes such
as higher productivity, quality and innovation.

5.  Financial outcomes: Financial outcomes which have been gained by Harrods
through its active HRM policies include higher return on investment made and
higher profits.
P1.2- Compare the differences between storey’s definitions of HRM, Personnel
and IR practices, by reflecting the HRM practices at Harrods and choose similar
organizations which have adopted Personnel or IR practices.
According to Storey’s definition of HRM, personnel and IR practices there is difference
between these terms. Difference in the terminologies can be identified based on the
HRM practice followed at Harrods and there are two aspects which can make the
difference and these two aspects are belief & assumption and strategic aspects.
Personnel management and IR practices tries to carefully delineation of written
contract while Storey’s definition for human resource management followed at
Harrods looks much beyond written contracts. In terms of management action
personnel and IR follows procedure while HRM practices at Harrods manages business
card (O'Brien, 2009). In terms of behaviour personnel and IR follows customs &
practices while HRM followed at Harrods emphasizes on values & mission. Following
the managerial control process personnel management and IR follows monitoring
while HRM at Harrods makes nurturing as its guiding principle. Nature of relationship
followed in personnel management and IR is pluralist in nature while HRM adopts
unitarist approach. Dealing with strategic aspects it has been observed that personnel
and IR are labour management while HRM is customer focused through active
employee engagement as adopted at Harrods. Another difference is in terms of
initiative as personnel & IR is piecemeal while HRM followed at Harrods is integrated
in nature.
P1.3- Assess the implications for line managers and employees of developing a
strategic approach to HRM at Harrods
Strategic approach to HRM adopted at Harrods demands for higher level of employee
engagement understanding the viewpoint that engaged employees in the organization
would be highly performing. Hence employees need to perform as per Harrods

6. expectations and also measures would be adopted by the organization in order to
achieve higher employee satisfaction. Line managers would be solely responsible in
order to develop the relationship with the employees of the organization and higher
engagement with employees would be the prime responsibility of line managers as
they are in direct touch to the employees.
Line managers are responsible at Harrods in order to develop open communication
with the human resource of the organization and direct functioning related with
human resource is being directly handled by line managers. Line managers at Harrods
handle the role of selection & recruitment, payroll management, assessing customer
satisfaction and adopting measure for enhancing employee motivation.
LO 2 Understand ways of developing flexibility within the workplace
In order to develop flexibility approach within the workplace it is important to have
thorough research and active communication process with the employees of the
organization. Communication practices with employees would explore way out
regarding HR practices that best suit the organization.

7. P2.1- Explain how a model of flexibility might be applied in practice. Relate this to
the Harrods and reflect your argument with examples
One of the vital models for human resource management flexibility used at workplace
is the mixture model which can be applied to Harrods as given as below:
High functional flexibility
&
High numerical flexibility (HH)
High functional flexibility
&
Low numerical flexibility (HL)
Low functional flexibility
&
High numerical flexibility (LH)
Low functional flexibility
&
Low numerical flexibility (LL)
Figure 1: Showing the mixture model of flexibility (Ling, 2012)
In the above proposed model LL and HH region represent the balanced models whiles
LH and HL regions represent the unbalanced model. There is difference in role played
by functional and numerical flexibility at workplace. Difference in terms of
employee’s ability would make an overall impact on the organizational performance.
Firm would have best performance under HH model followed by HL, LH & LL models.
For Harrods it is recommended that HH model of flexibility should be employed in
order to enhance the organizational performance. Functional flexibility can be
employed in Harrods by deploying employees between various functions. For example
an employee at cash counter can also work in the customer support division at retail
store. Similarly Harrods can hire contract employee so as to handle rush during
several occasion which would foster numerical flexibility in the organization. Hence a
mix of the two flexibilities would help Harrods to ensure good performance.
Mixture model of functionality works according to the two main flexibility aspects
which are numerical flexibility and functional flexibility. An organization need to

8. develop employee skill set in various functions so as to foster functional flexibility
while numerical flexibility needs to be foster in organization by hiring contract
employees, part time employees and full time employees in the organizational
context.
P 2.2 – Discuss the types of flexibility which may be developed by the Harrods.
There can be three types of flexibility that can be developed in Harrods and can be
given as under:
 Functional flexibility: Functional flexibility is sought in organizational
environment in order to redeploy employee between various functions & role
smoothly. Functional flexibility would mean to reduce occupation or job roles
for the individuals. For example in NHS nurses are offered the job roles which
were initially reserved for the medical staff (Jonathan, 2010).
 Financial flexibility: Financial flexibility provided for the pay levels of
employee would enable demarcation in demand & supply for employees in
external labour market. For example in order to link cost to output variable
pay linked with performance of sales staff has been spread over various
departments of the organization. This would be important to reduce linkage
between price and output.
 Numerical flexibility: Numerical flexibility of the organization can be in terms
of the number of employees working in the organization, number of hours
worked or number of locations at which employees are working in the
organization. In order to ensure numerical flexibility several organizations hire
employees on contract basis or through part time jobs. Numerical flexibility of
the organization depends upon the nature of business done by the organization.
For example, supermarkets would be more interested to employ people on part
time basis so as to match shopping hours of the customers while hospital would
be interested to employ nurses on contract basis so as to meet peak demand
for the hospitals.

9. In context of Harrods flexibility at workplace has been implemented as revealed
through below points:
 Offering work life choices for the employees which contains preferred meeting
schedule, paid employee volunteering and compressed working schedule for
one week
 Defining reward structure which is in accordance with family such as offering
break during children school off
 Work policies such as work from home and flexible timings as per availability of
time in organization
 Special leave arrangement for parents, e.g. 22 weeks paid leave for mothers,
10 day paid leave for father and 52 week unpaid leave for mother to grow their
child till age of six years
 Unpaid life style or career break so that people can take long breaks and can
join again
P 2.3 – Argue by assessing the use of flexible working practices from both the
employee and the employer perspective of Harrods
Flexible working programs are arrangement where in employer would give levy for the
employees to select their working time with higher flexibility such as flex time where
in start and end time for the work are chosen by employee while ensuring that
employee give fixed number of hours as stated by employer (Wright, 2011). Some of
the common examples of flexible time job arrangement include job sharing and
telecommuting etc. For Harrods example of flexible working practice can be given as
under:
 Offering work life choices for the employees which contains preferred meeting
schedule, paid employee volunteering and compressed working schedule for
one week

10.  Special leave arrangement for parents, e.g. 22 weeks paid leave for mothers,
10 day paid leave for father and 52 week unpaid leave for mother to grow their
child till age of six years
 Unpaid life style or career break so that people can take long breaks and can
join again
Benefit & limitations for the employer
Benefits
For an employer such as Harrods below can be some of the possible advantages for
the flexible working practices:
 Higher employee engagement & freedom involving higher performance
 Emerging organization as an attractive employer to work with
 Best possible tool for implementing employee retention as it has become
necessity for the organization to allow flexible work schedule for the employee
or taking risk for losing valuable human resource
 To match the organization peak and valley of activities during which
requirement for the human resource would vary
 Reduced absenteeism which organization attain through flexible working
schedule
Limitations
Some of the potential limitations for the flexible work schedule for Harrods include
below mentioned:
 Businesses and their managers need to recognize that flexible work schedule is
not always applicable to all industries, people and business needs

11.  It becomes burden for the organization as by providing flexibility to one
employee there would be problem of work allotment to other employees
working in the organization or organization has to suffer from work loss
 In long run work schedule flexibility can create inequalities among employees
leading bad working environment in the organization (Conaty and Ram, 2011)
 Job flexibility creates problems for job success measurement and require
higher investment for establishing continuous communication with its
employees
Benefits & limitations for employees
Benefits
Employees working at Harrods can deploy below mentioned benefits through flexible
work schedule practice employed in the organization:
 Work life balance
 Additional income through part time or contract jobs
 Help in enhancing productivity
 Facilities such as work from home offers opportunities for physically disables
persons as well
Limitations
Some of the potential limitations for flexible schedule working for employees of
Harrods include below mentioned:
 Create inequalities among peer group leading to unfavourable working
environment in the organization
 Some of the forms of flexible work schedule such as contract or part time are
not considered as full time work experience for the employees

12. P2.4 – Discuss the impact that changes in the labour market have had on flexible
working practices at Harrods
A large number of organizations implement flexible working practices in order to
deploy benefits which are obtained through such practice. Flexible working practices
have favourable impact for both employees as well as employer due to which trend
for flexible working practice is ever increasing. IOD member organizations have
reported that flexible working practice has noticeable impact on their bottom line
and more than 81% of the organizations have reported positive impact on the bottom
line. Changes in labour market would impact the flexible working practices at Harrods
as organization need to respond to demand & supply situations (Maier et al, 2013). In
case of excess supply from labour market organization would try to deploy flexible
working practice so that cost for human resource can be minimized. While in case of
shortfall in demand for the workforce organization may reduce number of contract or
part time employees and try to get higher number of fixed employees so that work
loss can be minimized through availability of the employees.
For Harrods changing labour market trends such as high employee churning and
shortage of skilled labour are the main issues. In order to handle these issues Harrods
needs to implement flexible work practice which would help employees to work
according to their suitable time hence employee churn would reduce and higher
availability of employees can be ensured.
LO 3 Understand the impact of equal opportunities within the workplace
Equal opportunities at workplace would allow an employee to engage it better with
the organization and a sense of equality would be obtained by the employees working
in the organization. Hence employees would be working with better motivation in the
organization for the equal opportunities offered by the organization to its employees.
P3.1 – Explain the forms of discrimination that can take place with special
reference to Harrods
Considering context of Harrods below forms of discrimination can take place:

13.  Direct discrimination: Direct discrimination can be said when an employee is
favoured against other in the similar situations due to the some factor which is
not present in other employee of the organization. Factor under consideration
for such a differentiation may include physical disability or economic status
etc. For example refusal to a person for hiring despite of required skill because
of physical disability (not hampering workplace performance) can be
considered as example for such discrimination adopted at workplace in
Harrods.
 Indirect discrimination: Indirect discrimination at workplace for Harrods can
take several forms such as illegal hiring & firing, denial for pay or promotion
and on job harassment etc.
Some of the common factors which may lead to the direct or indirect discrimination
at workplace with the employees include age, gender, religion, disability, marital
status and citizenship. For example in case a person is legally allowed to work in
United States but denying a person for job in United States is barred by law (Ingraham
and David, 2002).
P3.2 – Discuss the practical implications of equal opportunities legislation
practiced in Harrods
Some of the key equal opportunities legislations being practiced in Harrods include
below mentioned:
Race relations act 1976
According to Race relations act 1976 it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on
racial grounds for any kind of services, goods or opportunity for employment. There
exist two type of discrimination i.e. direct and indirect. Direct discrimination would
be when a person is less favoured against another person in same situation while
indirect discrimination involves application of a requirement which is equal for the
people of same race while having adverse impact on the people of other race. Racial
grounds on which discrimination is done include colour, race, nationality, citizenship

14. or ethnic factors. For example in Britain the most prevalent form of discrimination is
against the ethnic minorities. Section 71 states that it is the prime duty for local
authorities to ensure that unlawful race discrimination is not prevailing in society and
good race relations are being promoted in society (Pohlmann and Linda, 2002).
Race relation amendment act 2000
Amendment act 2000 put forward idea for bringing government departments such as
police, immigration services and prisons in purview of racial discrimination legislation.
The aim of amendment act was to combat against discrimination prevailing in
institutions and give duty to the public bodies to fight against racial discrimination.
Public bodies were asked to analyse reasons for absence of black people in senior
position in their organizations. With implementation of amendment act 2000 public
bodies started analysing their policies & procedure so that racial discrimination can
be avoided in any form from their organization.
Some of the duties which were allotted to public bodies in order to ensure
implementation of racial discrimination legislation include carrying out impact
assessment, conducting ethnic monitoring and issuing reports pertaining to the
received information (Mathis & Jackson, 2006). Harrods has got benefit of equal
opportunity regulations as it creates an environment where employees feel
encouraged and there is no direct or indirect discrimination prevailing in the
organizational environment.
P3.3 Compare the approaches adapted by Harrods to managing equal opportunities
and managing diversity
Harrods has adopted vital measures in order to promote equal opportunities and
managing diversity at workplace such as treating employees fairly without any biases,
creating environment that creates emphasis on value system of the organization and
encourage workplace diversity. Harrods provides ample chances of career
development to their employees so that they can make a better career with the
organization and can remain in the organization for longer time period. Diversity is

15. managed at Harrods through seven elements which are age, disability, race, gender,
religion, sexual orientation, work life balance etc. Harrods does not promote any
discrimination at workplace related to age, sex, region, gender or disability of the
employees. Work life balance is maintained by providing necessary breaks and
offering chances to work as per their comfortable timings.
LO 4 Understand approaches to human resource practices for the chosen
organization
Some of the major responsibilities for Harrods in organizational context include below
mentioned:
 Impart training for the employees so that organizational competitiveness can
be maintained
 Developing industrial policies & procedure of the organization in accordance
with the legislation
 Establishing recruitment and firing processes within the organization
 Establishing active communication with trade unions
 Assess employee performance and design reward structure which can motivate
employees
 Establish career progression for the employees so that they can remain with
the organization for longer time period
 Enhance employee engagement so as to get better performance
P.4.1 Research, Compare and comment on different methods of performance
management adopted by Harrods
Harrods management has adopted several methods in order to evaluate performances
which are as under:

16.  Performance appraisal 360 degree: In this method of performance appraisal
performance of a person is evaluated through confidential form filled by people
working around them. Stakeholders involves in 360 degree feedback involve
superior, subordinate, peer group and people working in other departments as
well. Harrods while making assessment for the employees would take feedback
from the various employees, supervisors and from the cross functional team so
that proper assessment can be done for a person.
 Employee engagement: Another method of employee performance can be to
measure employee engagement level as an engaged employee would perform
better and would be satisfied as compared to an employee who is not engaged.
An engaged employee is supposed to perform much better in comparison to an
engaged employee. Hence employee engagement should be enhanced for
Harrods which would be done through active communication with the
employees of the organization and involving into various HR activities of the
organization.
P4.2 Research and assess the approaches to the practice of managing employee
welfare in Harrods.
Every organization includes employee welfare in their human resource policies and
Harrods in pioneer among their policy regarding employee welfare scheme. Some of
the major adopted by Harrods for employee welfare are as under:
 Friend-family policy: Employees are given additional leaves annually so as to
spend their time with friends and family. Additional leaves are being paid at
lower salary in comparison to normal salary range of an employee.
 Flexible timings: Employees are being given autonomy to choose their start
and end hours for working making total hours at job fix.
 Assistance program for employees: Harrods make career progression planning
for their employees and assist them in developing a bright career for their
employees.

17.  Bullying and harassment policy: Harrods have developed suitable policies in
order to avoid any incident of bullying and harassment with their employees so
that employees can work freely in organization.
 Lifestyle and career breaks: Employees working at Harrods are being given
career and lifestyle breaks so that they can take out time from regular
schedule and can relax.
P4.3 Discuss the implications of health and safety legislation on human resources
practices with special reference to Harrods.
Considering health and safety legislation in human resource policy at Harrods there
are two important acts which are management of health and safety at workplace act
1999 and Health and safety at work act 1974. These two acts are important in order
to ensure that employees and other stakeholders involved in organization related to
work do not get affected adversely. In addition to above mention two acts for the
health safety of employee other health legislation covering specific activities also
pertains in organizational context e.g. computer work & electricity and lifting &
carrying activities (Samuel & Herbert, 2005). Considering Harrods context lifting and
carrying activities may have health & safety impact for the employees working in the
organization and other people at workplace. Lifting and carrying activities are
generally being done in supermarkets so as to shift goods from one place to other
(Sherwin, 2007).
P4.4 Evaluate the impact of one topical issue on human resources practices
reflected in the case study and additional research of Harrods.
The key issue identified in present context is high employee turnover and enhancing
organizational performance with help of higher employee engagement. Looking into
the current labour market scenario employee turnover is a major issue especially into
retail domain. Harrods has the strategy so as to improve employee engagement level
with the organizational activities and providing flexible work practice so that long

18. term commitment with the organization can be ensured and organizational
performance can be enhanced.
Harrods needs to deal with the human resource issues identified in above context
wherein high employee turnover can be improved through enhancing employee
morale and giving reward and recognition in the organizational context. Employee
engagement would be beneficial but other methods of reducing employee turnover
should be implemented in the organizational context.
Conclusion
The aim of present task was to understand various human resource management
perspectives followed at Harrods. Through present task human resource perspectives
have been understood, importance of flexibility at workplace was examined in order
to evaluate benefits & limitations for the flexibility policy to the organization. Further
organizational equality in terms of providing opportunities for the employees was
examined along with its impact on the organizational performance by enhancing
employee motivation. Human resource practices adopted at Harrods were evaluated
in order to understand essential element of Human resource practice which helps an
organization to maintain its most important asset which are the employees of the
organization. Overall present task has helped to examine role of human resource and
its related legislations such as equal opportunities, employee welfare and best
practices in human resource management towards development of an organizational
environment which is supported for both organization as well as its employees.
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