7HRC Human Resource Management in Context

Module Overview

Human resource management in context (7HRC) is a unit in the CIPD level 7 advanced module that provides learners with the opportunity to gain information on the business environment. The unit focuses on the internal and external environment contexts within modern organisations. It helps the learners to understand the managerial and business contexts that HR professionals, managers and employees in general have to work within.

The unit further examines the changing environment and how these changes have a bearing on the human resource management practices hence shaping the understanding of the role of HR departments within the organisation. The main target of this unit is to shape the HR strategic perspectives within the learners hence help them to view the HR roles as an evolving function within the organisation that helps it to adapt to the environmental turbulence experienced from managerial and business contexts.

Unit Objectives

The unit is wide in targeting the changing environment and understanding the role of human resource management in this wide context. As such, there are different learning objectives that are aimed at being achieved within the unit in achieving the overall goal of the unit. Some of the objectives include:

• Be able to understand the business environment

• Understand the HR and managerial contexts within contemporary business environment

• Relate the business environment to HR roles

• Be able to devise strategic measures that adapt the HR to the changing business environment

• Be able to provide support to both the organisation and employees in adapting to the changing business environments

• Understand factors that shape the HR strategic agenda

Suitability of the Unit

This unit is suitable to different groups of people. The primary targets of the unit are human resource professionals. These are a group of leaders within the organisation tasked with the duties of facilitating success by influencing the people practices within the organisation. They provide the necessary influencing to the employees by setting effective practices, devising a supportive culture and ensuring g that the employees are able to achieve their maximum potential working within the specific business environment.

The human resource people are also responsible of setting in place organisational change to meet the changing business environment and ensure that it adapts to new environments without compromising the performance of the organisation. 7HRC is a unit that provides information and skills to human resource professionals that help them understand the business environment from the managerial and HR contexts. This helps to prepare them to formulate an effective HR agenda for the organisation.

The unit is however also applicable to other professionals including top managers within the organisation who are responsible for devising specific change policies and strategies. The unit helps such managers with understanding the human resource context and hence improving their ability to make decisions that are considerate of the HR provisions and agendas within the organisation. Through having this understanding, the management is able to create a dynamic environment that incorporates the context of human resource in various organisational activities and practices, including strategic plans.

Key Areas of Learning

The unit focuses mainly on studying the organisational context and its implication on human resource management. It helps to build an understanding of the nature of changes experienced within the business environment hence understand the managerial and HR strategic agendas in this context. Some of the key areas of learning include:

Business Context

The context of the business has a critical influence on the managerial and HR functions. 7HRC is a unit that aims at ensuring that the employees understand the different HR management practices and policies across the numerous tiers of organisational context. This includes the social, economic, political and economic contexts that influence  the organisational, community and international levels. These area of study is important in improving the understanding of the learners on the setting of the organisation and how this could influence their decision making as they continue to expedite their professional duties and responsibilities.

Understanding human resource management in the business context is a critical step in improving the adaptation of practices and policies that suit the organisation at a specific time. This area of study further covers the HR functions in adapting the organisation into this environments. Through understanding the business context, the learner is able to understand the roles that a professional in HR management including people professionals and HR business partners play in promoting the HR strategic agenda within the specific contexts.

Organisational Change

This area of study in 7HRC covers the changing nature of the immediate organisational environment. Since the unit aims at understanding the management of human resource within the business context, it is also important to understand how the human resource management practices and policies adapt to changes that may be experienced within the organisation at either international or community levels.

This area of study helps to understand the theoretical frameworks that support the Human resource management practices within the changing business context to ensure that there are minimal disruptions within the human resource of the organisation that could affect satisfaction and performance of the employees. The area is critical in covering the specific steps that should be implemented in adapting the HR to the changing environment within the organisation and the functions that the management plays in achieving this goal.

Outcome and Assessment

The outcome of this advanced level 7 unit will be providing contextual knowledge to the learners on human resource management. The learners will be able to understand the role of human resource management, including the practices and policies, in the social, economic and political setting of the organisation at organisational, industry and international levels.

This information is critical in devising organisational strategies, especially within the Human resource department. The unit is assessed using a written assessment where the learner is required to provide responses to the assessment module for the unit. These responses must show both theoretical and practical understanding of the concepts learned, which are expressed through the use of practical examples from the organisation of choice or the organisation where the learner is attached.