Line Manager Case Study

Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line manager’s in human resource management

Line managers have a very important role in implementing HRM, they are the people who are responsible for the execution of HR policies at operational level.

A line manager is a manager to whom individual employees or teams of employees report directly to. They are responsible for a higher level of management for those employees or teams.

“Front-line managers” are along the same lines however, their jobs are slightly more specific. “Font-line managers” refers to the lower layers of the management hierarchy. The employees who report to them have no managerial or supervisory responsibility. “Front-line managers” are generally promoted from within the organization and therefore tend to have no formal management education.

Management responsibilities carried out by line managers (front-line managers in particular) include, the day-to-day management of people, providing technical expertise, managing operational costs, dealing with customer/clients, organization of work allocation/rotas, checking quality, monitoring work processes and measuring operational performance.

Within their day-to-day people management responsibilities, line managers must effectively, deal with customers & staff, any problems and solutions that may arise and also look out for their teams/employees with their best interest always in the forefront of their mind.

Another important aspect of being a line manager is keeping a close eye on operational costs in a business. For example, they must effectively manage the cost of running the organization’s premises, including the cost of lighting/heating etc. By ensuring these operational costs stay lower the organization can save mo...

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...ng HRM as they are the ones working alongside the front-line workers and can put policies and practices into action effectively. They represent the first line of management to which employees should report to. In order to encourage higher performance, line managers will build a good working relationships with their staff, they will listen to and communicate effectively, respond to suggestions and deal with problems, help and support their employees and build good teams. Line managers are crucial in a number of respects as they enable HR policies and practices by actually bringing them to life and making them happen. They can act directly on advice or guidance given from HR and control the work flow by directing and guiding the work of others. All of these things benefit the organization as they encourage higher performance and output, resulting in sales and profit.