The manager's job

DD has a great post on what Drucker defined as the job of the manager. Notice that this definition does not have the "doing things right" kind of bromide in it !

The manager's job is amazingly complex and as DD explains how it HR manager's fail to do the ir actual job which is to- as Drucker defined - direct the resources and efforts of the business toward opportunities for economically significant results.

Being a support function that yearns to be strategic every task that one does as a HR person needs to be viewed from the prism of this definition. That will get HR folks to ask "What is economically significant for my business?" and I guarantee you a lot of light bulbs will be lighted up ;-)

DD says -

for HR these resources should be directed toward opportunities for advancing the strategy.

However my view is that strategy disconnects happen from the larger organization to SBUs to specific businesses and product lines. Which strategy would a HR person align to in the local level? One can agree that it should be strategy of the local level, as at a national or global level this strategy can be too far away to connect with.

That is why HR needs to have a functionally aligned strategy that links to business strategy. That is the strategy that HR folks need to adhere to.

When I talk of strategy it's not articulated vision or mission statements, but strategic choices that I am talking about. About how our business is doing this and not that. Therefore the people we hire should be motivated by this and not that. And what can we do with the people we hired keeping in mind the old strategic choices who are out of sync with the new strategic choices. How can we redeploy, reskill and develop them. Even choices about being a employer of choice, of having a 'collegial culture' or large campuses ;-)

You'll find entry level jobs at CollegeRecruiter.com.