UNIT 402: CONTEMPORARY PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Overview

Managing people at work is perhaps the central activity in most managerial jobs. In recent years the effective management of people at work has become increasingly important due to a number of changes in the external environment in which organisations operate and changes in the nature of organisations themselves. In particular, line managers find themselves being asked to develop and apply people management skills, which in the past would have been the domain of human resource management (HRM) specialists. This unit has been designed to develop your conceptual and practical skills of the kind increasingly required by line managers.

We do not pretend that a unit like this can make you an expert in people management. Rather, our aim is to help you develop the skills you need to be a well-informed and effective manager of your staff at work.

Aims

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• explain the basic functions involved in strategic people management and the manager's role in performing these functions
• identify the key principles underlying strategic people management and explain how their implementation enhances organisational and individual performance
• identify the legal frameworks related to people management to which managers must adhere
• apply theoretical knowledge to people management in a range of organisational contexts
• use effective communication and practical problem-solving skills to effectively manage people in a range of organisational contexts
• evaluate the likely effectiveness of different approaches to managing people in a global environment
• explain the role of ethics in managing people
• explain the relationship between effective people management and organisational performance

Topics

• What is 'people management' and why does it matter?
• The legal environment for managing people
• Organisational power and politics
• Communication and negotiation in organisations
• Industrial and employee relations
• Work organisation: The analysis and design of jobs
• Hiring and dismissing and retaining staff
• Supervision and performance appraisal
• Managing organisational change
• Putting it all together: The importance of people management
• Identify emerging contemporary people management issues and trends

Unit Chair

Ken Dundas
M.Com, MBA, DipEd, GradDip (Fin Mgt)

Ken has had a long career teaching human resources, industrial relations and economics for managers at numerous institutions, both in Australia and overseas (in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Fiji). He has taught in various settings, including weekend workshops and online courses, and co-ordinated the MBA distance education program at Southern Cross University for six years.

Ken has also written distance education Study Guides for both MBA and Master in Public Administration courses, questions for the Human Resource Management textbook by Stone and the Management: Core Concepts and Skills by Davidson. He also contributes regularly to a newsletter for High School and TAFE students called Ecodate.

Study Guide Author

Neil Hardie
Ph.D., M.Sc (Econ), M.Sc. (Eng), A.C.G.I., Th.C.

Neil Hardie managed technical departments in multinational electronics companies for 20 years and was responsible in many of these organisations for establishing quality systems and best practice initiatives. His PhD in quality management led to a book on quality management and several papers in leading journals. He has taught MBA programs in various universities in Australia, and also in Malaysia and Pakistan. His research interests include knowledge management and management of non-profit organisations.