Want To Study Human Resource Management? Here Are The 7 Benefits

Human resource management is a multi-disciplinary area of study wherein aspiring managers get inputs from varied sources of knowledge.

Here are the benefits of studying Human Resource Management. (Representative Image)

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By Prof. Chiradip Bandyopadhyay

The business environment of organisations is increasingly characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Responses to such challenges are centred around human resources.  The centrality of human resources in facilitating organisational transformations implies ‘Choice’. Human resources exhibit a choice to either appreciate or depreciate. Business performance depends on how well organisations recognize this ‘choice’. The interplay of ‘choice’ at levels of organisation and employees makes studying human resource management contemporary and interesting.  

Careers are no longer viewed as linear but increasingly non linear progression across roles and competencies. Aspiring business managers, in order to thrive in such a scenario, need to be  aware of human resource management. Human resource management is a multi-disciplinary area of study wherein aspiring managers get inputs from varied sources of knowledge such as applied psychology, sociology, micro and macro economics, and labour laws, to name a few.

Aspiring managers can look forward to a number of reasons to study human resource management courses. These reason range from business, professional personal and functional prespectives; and are discussed sequentially in the  remaining part of the article.

1. Business Reasons: Managing business in the present times is not only related to managing materials, machines, technology, information and money. Far more importantly it is about maganing people or human resources who are at the core of any business. Human resources have been crucial in turning around industries, and examples are plenty in this respect. Instances are also many about organisations which have fallen from grace due to lack of managing human resources. Aspirants intending to be business managers need to take note of the fact that it is effective management of human resources that sustains and take organisations to higher levels.      

2. Influencing Behaviors: Organisations are built around behaviours, progressing from individual (micro) to groups (meso) and finally to organisations (macro) levels. Managers in order to be effective at workplace need to be able to understand the need for behaviours. Responding to various requirements of behaviours, managers ought to flex behavior styles. Managers in the making therefore enrich their competencies by learning various principles and theories of bevaiours and its modulation in organisations.  Moreover, organisations are a presenstaion of cumulative behavior of its constituents i.e., employees. Hence learning how employees behave and why they do so offer insights to managers to decipher behavior of oragnizations.  

3. Crafting Organisations: Creating, developing and modifying organisations are experiences every manager aspires for. Competencies for such roles originate in courses on organisational structure and design. Learning from these courses, essential components in study of human resource management, empower to – be managers to reflect upon the components and processes of creating, developing and maintaining organisations.

4. Augmenting Interactional Skills: The workplace, be it physical or virtual, is marked by networks of interactions. These networks may be amongst employees. Various stakeholders in business play an important role towards its effectiveness. Hence it is important for wannabe managers to inculcate necessary interactional skills based on emotional intelligence, transactional analysis, power – politics and conflict management. These skills are in fact navigating skills that are foundational to the management profession.  

5. Career Wise: Studying human resource management courses as part of management curriculam has numerous career implications. These implications offer a wide range of opportunities for career growth and development. Business managers need to manage human resources as organisations create competitive advantage. Contemporary organisations are ‘people driven’. Business managers need to create systmes and proceses which allow ‘huan resources’ to flourish. Organisations which have allowed human resources to excel and thrive are the ones which have returned greater gains to the stakeholders. Embarking on human resource management courses can open up avenues for career progression and promotion. Obtaining HR qualifications, can enhance credibility and expertise in one’s field, making a manager more suitable for higher-level roles within organisations.

6. HR Careers: Numerous options exist in pursuing careers in HR in organisations. The options can be categorized as functional, techno-functional consulting and domain consulting.

In functional roles the careers cater to the human resource management aspects of an organisation. Such roles mainly focus about providing HR services to organisations and are mainly advisory, support or compliance-ensuring in nature. Further, such roles can be subdivided into business HR partner (BPHR) or centre of excellamce (CoE)  roles. The former one provides HR support to organisations, while the later one provides specialist HR services to organisations.  

Techno-functional consulting roles in HR are about integrarting various HR enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with human resource system specific applications. Such roles require knowledge of human resource systems  and their applications to various people related issues. The India human resource (HR) technology market size reached US$ 1,040 Million in 2023. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach US$ 2,170 Million by 2032, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3% during 2024-2032.

Domain consulting roles on the other hand are about providing human resource management solution to various business issues. These role require understanding and application of HRM systems and practices to various business challenges. HR consultants also provide multi disciplinary advices, which makes such roles even more exciting.

7. HR Entrepreneurship: Human Resource Management (HRM) market size was assessed at USD 19.41 Bn in 2021, and is expected to record a CAGR of 12.7% in during 2023-2030. Moreover, the market is anticipated to be valued at USD 56.93 Bn by 2030. Entrepreneurial HR activities pertain to specific applications in recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation management. HR entrepreneurs also look forward to comprehensive assignments in change management, vision – mission exercises to name a few. Such roles are extremely interesting and yet skills to excel in such roles are rare.

In conclusion, human resource management courses not only provide a  fundamental foundation of HR knowledge and skills but also act as a catalyst for long-term professional development and growth. Human resource management courses facilitate development of competencies to critically analyze businesses, equipping businesses with advisorories and support required to stand out in a highly competitive scenario.

(The Author is the Area Chair - OBHR in FORE School of Management)

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