Human resource managers in any organization are supportive staff tasked with various institutional roles such as; planning, directing, and coordinating functions of the organization or institution. They are responsible for overseeing the recruiting and hiring of new organization members. Before hiring new staff, it is the role of the human resource manager to work alongside the line administration in a careful assessment of the new potential staff. However, line managers and human resource managers always tend to disagree.
The most common issue leading to disagreement between line and human resource managers is the institutional or organizational policies. Line managers tend to deviate from enforcing these policies (Poell, 2022). However, the HR managers have to accommodate this problem for the sake of the employees who will lack motivation due to poor management. HM managers find it difficult to execute their roles efficiently as they have to include the line management in making sound solutions for the organization. Lack of awareness of the legal issues bound to the work of the HR manager makes line managers implement decisions unfit with HM regulations. According to Wood & Guest (2014), line managers will ignore the role of the HR manager to develop a system for employee appraisal and feedback management. The HM managers can also provoke conflict when they overdo their responsibilities, making the line managers react aggressively.
A good work relationship between the line managers and HM managers should be created to ensure the smooth and effective execution of the HM managers’ role. Training employees will eradicate the problem with additional tools like focusing on a common institutional goal to create a supportive environment for employees and staff. As an HR manager, I would recognize that line managers need to get involved in HR policy, since they are the ones implementing it at a basic-level. Therefore, I would view line managers as strategic associates of HR, and not as an obstacle to overcome, and make them part of policymakers.
References
Azmi, F. T., & Mushtaq, S. (2014). Role of line managers in human resource management: Empirical evidence from India. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(5), 616-639.
Poell, R. F. (2022). Will human resource development become too important to be left to human resource development professionals? Employees and managers as strategic human resource development stakeholders. Human Resource Development Review, 0(0), 1-8.