Human Resources: The Specialist and Generalist

602 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Human Resource generalist vs Human Resource specialist

Human Resources: The Specialist and Generalist Within the human resource department there are both generalists and specialists. There has been some debate on which is best, and there is common infighting between the two classes. Within this paper we will argue the importance of using both classes of human resource employees and the generalist bias that causes skewed hiring of generalists over specialists. Generalist A Human resources generalist is an employee that works with most if not all areas. Generalists are define as an employee possessing a macro orientation, more loyalty to their employing organization than a professional group, and has aspiration to climb the corporate hierarchy as it exists (Cesare & Thornton, 1993). The human resource generalist is best used as an employee to cover a broad area of subject areas. These HR generalists give direction to the management and employees (Christensen, 2005). Specialist A human resource specialist are trained in a singular discipline, concerned with increasing their skill and ability, and highly value the respect of their specialist peers (Cesare & Thornton, 1993). The human resource specialist is meant to cover the technical aspects of a single to a few areas of the human resource department. These HR specialists give direction to management, and to the generalists (Christensen, 2005). Conflict Between Classes The two classes have been separated by competing for management approval. Christensen says that "I have never been in an organization where this [generalist vs specialist] was not a serious and emotionally charged issue" (2005). The real problem lays in the fact that the generalist is often times left feeling responsible for any question that they are asked and inst... ... middle of paper ... ...ton, C. (1993). Human resource management and the specialist/generalist issue.Journal of Managerial Psychology, 8(3), Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/science/article/pii/S0749597812001185 Wang, L., & Murnighan, J. (2013). The generalist bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 120(1), 47-61. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/science/article/pii/S0749597812001185 Dunning, D., Hayes, A. (1996) Evidence for egocentric comparison in social judgment Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, pp. 213–229 Gilbert, D., Giesler, R., Morris, K. (1995) When comparisons arise Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, pp. 227–236 Mussweiler, T., Rüter K., What friends are for! The use of routine standards in social comparison Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85 (2003), pp. 467–481

Show More
Related

  • How Cabela's maintain competitive advantage through human capital

    2621 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management (13th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomas/South-western

    Read More

  • Human Resources Management at REI, Inc.

    2489 Words  | 5 Pages

    Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.

    Read More

  • Ban The Box Case Analysis

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2014). Fundamentals of human resource management (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

    Read More

  • The Human Resources Framework By Bolman And Deal

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    A. The Human Resources Framework The human resources framework is one of the four framework approaches identified by Bolman & Deal; this frame regards people’s skills, attitudes, energy, and commitment. The human resource frame defends the ideas that organizations can be stimulating, rewarding, and productive (Bolman, & Deal, 1991). The human resources framework focuses on leadership styles of support, advocate and empowerment, and provides efficient and transformative change for your organization by addressing human issues, leading to greater accomplishment of goals and better individual, team, and organizational performance. The leaders increase participation, support, share information, and transfer decision making down to employees in the

    Read More

  • The Knights of Labor

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.library3.webster.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1700400026&v=2.1&u=edenweb_main&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w. Dessler, G. (2011). The 'Standard'. Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Read More

  • The Social Effective Theory Of The Social Comparison Theory

    1134 Words  | 3 Pages

    Festinger’s first hypothesis states how people are driven to evaluate their own opinions and abilities because people want to be socially

    Read More

  • Evaluating the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Social Identity Theory

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social comparison and positive distinctiveness. Our social identity contributes to our self-image so we look for positive social identities to keep a high self-esteem. Comparing in groups and out groups allows us to enhance superiority of a group. The Social identity theory explains that the in group will discriminate against the out group to en...

    Read More

  • Interview With a Human Resources Manger

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    Organizations’ other resources can be hired, retained and discarded at any time but human resources needs special treatment. It needs to be carefully hired, deserve an extra effort to retain it and requires training & development to upgrade and improve its capabilities. Other resources depreciate with the passage of time but when the human resource gains more and more experience, it becomes more beneficial for the organizations. These characteristics have brought human resources to be the central element for the success of an organization. (Mohammed, Bhatti, Jariko, and Zehri, 2013, pg. 129, para. 2)

    Read More

  • the false consensus effect

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Further Reading Mullen, B., Atkins, J. L., Champion, D. S., Edwards, C., Hardy, D., Story, J. E., & Vanderlok, M. (1985). The false consensus effect: A meta-analysis of 115 hypothesis tests. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 262-283. Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The false consensus phenomenon: An attributional bias in self-perception and social perception processes.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Social Identity Theory

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    By comparing ourselves with other people we categorize and label those who are similar to us as the in-group and people who differ from our-self are categorized as the out-group (Duff & Peace, 2012). We act in ways to favor our in-group rather than out group, this is called in-group favoritism. In-groups and out-groups are evident in many social environments, for example, children form groups with those who like playing similar games to them. In a study that explains in-group favoritism, an experiment was conducted by allocating individuals into groups based on the result of a coin flip (Billing & Tajfel, 1973). After having been told their group members, the participants then had to allocate points to members of their own group (‘in-group’) and to the members of the other group (‘out-group’). These members of the in-group ...

    Read More

  • Motivation in The Workplace

    1780 Words  | 4 Pages

    Levy, Paul E. Industrial Organizational Psychology. New York: Worth, 2013. Print. The. Laird, Dugan, Sharon S. Naquin, and Elwood F. Holton.

    Read More

  • Human Resources Manager

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Human resources are the function within a company’s organization that monitors the availability of qualified workers. They recruits and screens applicants for jobs help select qualified employees. Some of those roles are focusing on recruitment, employee performance management benefits, compensation, training and retention in an organization. All this is the human resources manager needs to provide a high return on the company’s investment in its people. A human resources manager also deals with the employee relations, resource planning and administrative personal functions. They also deal with hiring, firing, training and other personal issues. A human resources manager also deals with safety, employee motivation, communication and all the administrative stuff. A human resources manager is one of the most important jobs in any health care organization.

    Read More

  • The Importance of the Human Resource Function

    5236 Words  | 11 Pages

    A human resource manager needs to plan ahead and know what is going on. in and outside the company labour market. He needs to be aware of the past, present and future trends of employment in a particular area. of the specialisation of the. He needs to know if there are available skills needed or if there are few people with the type of skills needed by the company.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Human Resources

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Whether an organization consists of five or 25,000 employees, human resources management is vital to the success of the organization. HR is important to all managers because it provides managers with the resources – the employees – necessary to produce the work for the managers and the organization. Beyond this role, HR is capable of becoming a strong strategic partner when it comes to “establishing the overall direction and objectives of key areas of human resource management in order to ensure that they not only are consistent with but also support the achievement of business goals.” (Massey, 1994, p. 27)

    Read More

  • Human Resource Management, Questions and Answers

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    Human Resource Management is the title given to define formal systems arranged for the management of people within a company. There are many responsibilities of a human resource manager. These responsibilities usually fall into three major areas: employee compensation, staffing and defining and/or designing work. The purpose of Human Resource Management is to maximize the capacity of a company by bettering its employees. This is unlikely to change in the future even though the pace of business is always changing . Edward L. Gubman said in the Journal of Business Strategy, "the basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business. Those three challenges will never change."

    Read More

More about Human Resources: The Specialist and Generalist

Open Document