1.  Provide a precise definition for “human capital”. 
2.  What managerial decisions/actions have you seen that support and increase the value of human capital? 
3.  What organization actions might further improve the value of human capital?
UNIT V STUDY GUIDE
Human Capital, Health, and Safety
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit V
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
7. Discuss the value of human capital in an organization.
8. Relate resource management to strategic planning in an organization.
Reading Assignment
In order to access the following resource(s), click the link(s) below:
Hammill, G. (2005). Mixing and matching four generations of employees. FDU Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm
Employee safety a necessary consideration. (2015). Hotel Management, 230(9), 85. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=oran9510
8&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA431533457&asid=17ed8575b1e8818d643a2bc92be1422b
Wright, P. M. (1998). Strategy HR fit: Does it really matter. Human Resources Planning, 21(4), 56–57.
Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=oran9510
8&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA54035902&asid=c1f118afab5196fde09c4ad9bb196151
Pynes, J. E. (1998). The changing role of the human resource manager. PA Times, 21(5), 1. Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc
t=true&db=bth&AN=563572&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Ramsey, R. D. (2015). Getting the most from today’s millennials in the workforce. Supervision, 76(11), 3–5.
Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc
t=true&db=bth&AN=110417825&site=ehost-live&scope=site
BBA 3602, Principles of Management
1
Unit Lesson
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
YouTube Video for Unit V
Click here to view the video for Unit V (1m 28s).
Click here to access a PDF of the video transcript.
As reliable sources indicate, managing employees in the early Industrial Age was a relatively simple matter
for simpler times. A supervisor had to document where a new hire was to work and ensure that the portfolio
holding the new employee’s records had accurate information. As organizations’ capabilities grew over the
years, so did managers’ responsibilities, including the requirement to manage human capital in a complex,
information technology-supported environment. Times changed, and so did societal expectations of
management. It now involved efficient management of human capital both as resources and as people,
support of organization members (including health promotion), and operational risk management to maintain
safety in the work place.
Human resources (HR) management in the 20th century was a personnel file-holding, record-keeping,
complaint-receiving, organizational chart-maintaining office. It has now evolved into a dynamic, staffproponent office led by HR managers who leverage technology to serve the organization’s people and
support managerial decisions with transformational HR management. Gone are the days when employees
had to wait weeks for their training records to be updated or pay corrected. Most functions will be completed
with an on-the-spot request. Those requiring decisions will be completed shortly after the employee makes
the request. Clearly, technological
advancements and shifts in values have
brought a widespread increase in
consideration of an organization’s people and
oversight of their welfare. With these changes,
the stereotype of meek personnel managers
who remain in the background during
executive conferences is fading. Indeed, we
should expect good HR managers of today to
boldly assert their position on behalf of those
they represent. What other ideas can we
gather about HR management as it is today?
The Present: Multiple Generations at Work
Various management approaches across
generations of organizational members may
be a good idea. With people living longer, we
(Jackhsiao, 2008)
may have people from several generations in
our workforce. Millennials, the youngest generation and now the generation with the most people in our
workforce, do not wish to continue traditions without a good reason. They tend to avoid situations involving
long commutes or environmental waste. They are accustomed to career instability, so they may not
automatically want to stay put in one organizational situation. Greg Hammill (2005) of Fairleigh Dickinson
University wrote that there are four generations in the workplace today. The range of worldviews at
workplaces of such a spread of people can be stereotyped from accepting that the boss’s word is law and
How medical and business records were once organized by the
human resources department
BBA 3602, Principles of Management
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final to a professional form of chronic skepticism. From a chart Hammill (2005)UNIT
developed,
thisGUIDE
is a summary
x STUDY
of four generations’ outlooks on money:
Title
?
?
?
?
Veterans (1922-1945): Put it away; pay cash.
Baby Boomers (1946-1964): Buy now; pay later.
Generation X (1965-1980): Be cautious and conservative: save, save, save.
Millennials/Generation Y (1981-2000): Earn to spend.
The Scope of HR Management
HR management is a life-cycle process that focuses on an employee’s professional growth and welfare from
recruiting practices to retirement. Few employees will belong to one organization for their entire working life.
Regardless of how long they have been at the company; the HR manager is still responsible for supporting
their career aspirations. The organization must put its people first before all company goals. HR management
includes training to suit employees’ needs, progressive assignments to support employees’ planned career
patterns, and reliance on information technology (IT) as a primary data bank and processing method.
The five components of management (planning, organization, staffing, directing, and controlling) have HR
management integrated into them. In a few cases (such as staffing), it dominates the management approach
to the component:
?
?
?
?
?
Planning as a management component includes an estimate of the organization’s staffing situation.
Does the organization have sufficient properly trained people who can prepare in time to implement
the plan?
Organization as a management component refines the supervision of human capital. Do we have the
right people assigned to the right places in the organization? Do we need to move people or
reorganize to fulfill our vision?
Staffing as a management component is closely linked to organizing. Did we acquire the right people
on our teams and sections? Can we still acquire them?
Directing as a management component supports HR management as much as the reverse is true.
Are we leading effectively? Are our methods burning out employees or not using some of the
employees effectively?
Controlling as a management component is somewhat associated with directing. Are our controlling
techniques eroding personnel effectiveness or supporting it?
HR management rarely supports only the operations of today; in its true form it supports a strategic view.
HR Participation in Strategic Planning?
FEMA Region VII Administrator, Dick Hainje; Region VII
Federal Coordination Official (FCO), Bill Vogal; FEMA
Public Assistance (PA) official, Walter Estep; U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Mississippi River Division, Gary
Stangeland and City of Cedar Rapids Solid Waste
manager, Mark Jones work on Linn County’s waste
issues.
HR management both includes and supports strategic
planning. People perform the plan. Failure to integrate
HR management into strategic planning (or even crisis
planning) will undermine successful results. The HR
aspect of strategic planning may not have to be
extensive if the HR plan is already strong. Even so, all
things change with time, and an HR program not kept upto-date will show signs of aging as it fails to support
people in an expected way and employees begin to
leave for better job situations
(Pynes, 1998; Wright, 1998).
Employee health and wellness, often delegated to HR
staff as a proponent responsibility, is a line of effort that
can support the organization over the long term with
healthier and longer-living members. As was the case for
other employee welfare issues, historically this was not
understood or emphasized as a manager’s concern.
(Bahler, 2008)
However, with the realization that the four main causes
of disease are poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking, and excessive drinking, health maintenance as a personal
BBA 3602, Principles of Management
3
value has influenced the workplace along with other aspects of life (Centers for
Disease
Control
& Prevention,
UNIT
x STUDY
GUIDE
2015). What programs can make a difference in employees’ health?
Title
Organizations such as Google have experimented with providing resources so employees can nap, work out,
and conveniently buy healthy food. Smoking and alcohol abuse cessation programs contribute to health
improvements over time, and their benefits far outweigh, in proportion, the funds invested in these efforts.
Safety in the workplace is a staff responsibility that may be vested with the HR department, or a separate
safety office may be established with strong cooperation links to HR managers. Safety entails both educating
employees on how to perform work (including operating dangerous equipment in a safe manner) and instilling
in them a culture of operational risk management. Operational risk management (ORM) is the art of assessing
risk, deciding a mitigation measure, and ensuring a safe alternative is practiced for any situation. Observing
ORM, once trained, may make the difference between approving a procedure for stacking boxes a certain
way that may topple and looking for an alternative that does not place employees at such obvious risk
(“Employee Safety,” 2015).
HR, health, and safety are a few important functional areas that, if mastered as a specialist, may make a new
manager an attractive hire!
References
Bahler, B. (2008). FEMA – 35780 – Federal and State disaster managers work on strategic planning in Iowa
[Image]. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_35780__Federal_and_State_disaster_managers_work_on_strategic_planning_in_Iowa.jpg
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. (2015). Chronic disease overview. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/index.htm
Employee safety a necessary consideration. (2015). Hotel Management, 230(9) 85.
Hammill, G. (2005). Mixing and matching four generations of employees. FDU Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm
Jackhsiao. (2008). HCCH-medical records.JPG [Image]. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HCCH-medical_records.JPG
Pynes, J. (1998). The changing role of the human resource manager. PA Times, 21(5), 1.
Wright, P. M. (1998). Strategy HR fit: Does it really matter? Human Resource Planning 21(4), 56–57.
BBA 3602, Principles of Management
4

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