UNIT 402: CONTEMPORARY PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Overview

Managing people at work is 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

John Taya
B.Buss, MIR, MACID

John is the Executive Director Organisational Development at Main Roads, Western Australia—an organisation that has won numerous awards for best practice in Human Resource Management and Strategy. He was previously the Executive Director Human Resources and has worked in this capacity in both the Public and Private Sectors in Australia and London. John has been instrumental in bringing human resource management to the executive table in the Western Australian Public Sector and in recent years (with the skills shortages facing industry) has focussed on how strategic human resources can drive organisational strategic planning.

John has written and published papers on Human Resource Management and has also lectured in the MBA programs at the Graduate School of Management at the University of Western Australia, and at the Graduate School of Business at Curtin University. He is a member of the UWA Civil Engineering Industry Advisory Panel and the Curtin University School of Management Advisory Board.

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.