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Normative approach: Normative approach base itself on Hard HRM and soft HRM concepts through which HRM strategies are applied.
Critical approach: Critical approach to human resource management is against the normative approach and contradicts the theory proposed in normative approach.
Behavioural approach: Behavioural approach to human resource management focuses on employee attitude and behaviour to suit strategies so that desired performance can be attained (Merkle, 2007).
System approach: System approach to human resource management advocates for competencies management, behaviour management and setting up mechanism for technology.
Agency of transaction cost: Human resource department of the organization need to adopt an approach which can minimize transaction cost for the organization.

P1.1- Explain how the Guests model of HRM is adopted at Harrods.

Guest model of HRM followed at Harrods have six major parameters which are given as below:

HRM strategy: HRM strategy adopted at Harrods is to make higher employee engagement as this would ensure the organizational success. Harrods have focus on enhancing employee engagement as organization understands that an engaged employee can perform much better in comparison to other employees.
HRM practice: HRM practice adopted at Harrods includes recruitment & selection, performance and development. Aim of recruitment & selection processes adopted at Harrods is to attract suitable new employees while performance enables their employee to work in accordance with the employee abilities and get desired results (Mayo, 2005). Employee development is done through identification of career progression opportunities for the employees at Harrods. HRM practices adopted at Harrods should be such that career development can be done for the employees.
HRM outcomes: Through HRM practices there are two vital results which have been obtained by Harrods and these are commitment and quality. Commitment and quality both are resultant of their HRM strategy of higher employee engagement. Harrods needs to ensure high organizational performance by understanding employees need and maintain Harrods value.
Behaviour outcomes: There are four behavioural outcomes obtained by Harrods by deploying best HR practices and these behavioural outcomes include motivation among employees, cooperation, employee engagement and organizational citizenship.
Performance outcomes: Through HRM practices and HRM strategy adopted by Harrods organization is successful in obtaining key performance outcomes such as higher productivity, quality and innovation.
Financial outcomes: Financial outcomes which have been gained by Harrods through its active HRM policies include higher return on investment made and higher profits.

According to Storey’s definition of HRM, personnel and IR practices there is difference between these terms. Difference in the terminologies can be identified based on the HRM practice followed at Harrods and there are two aspects which can make the difference and these two aspects are belief & assumption and strategic aspects. Personnel management and IR practices tries to carefully delineation of written contract while Storey’s definition for human resource management followed at Harrods looks much beyond written contracts. In terms of management action personnel and IR follows procedure while HRM practices at Harrods manages business card (O'Brien, 2009). In terms of behaviour personnel and IR follows customs & practices while HRM followed at Harrods emphasizes on values & mission. Following the managerial control process personnel management and IR follows monitoring while HRM at Harrods makes nurturing as its guiding principle. Nature of relationship followed in personnel management and IR is pluralist in nature while HRM adopts unitarist approach. Dealing with strategic aspects it has been observed that personnel and IR are labour management while HRM is customer focused through active employee engagement as adopted at Harrods. Another difference is in terms of initiative as personnel & IR is piecemeal while HRM followed at Harrods is integrated in nature.

P1.3- Assess the implications for line managers and employees of developing a strategic approach to HRM at Harrods

Strategic approach to HRM adopted at Harrods demands for higher level of employee engagement understanding the viewpoint that engaged employees in the organization would be highly performing. Hence employees need to perform as per Harrods expectations and also measures would be adopted by the organization in order to achieve higher employee satisfaction. Line managers would be solely responsible in order to develop the relationship with the employees of the organization and higher engagement with employees would be the prime responsibility of line managers as they are in direct touch to the employees.

Line managers are responsible at Harrods in order to develop open communication with the human resource of the organization and direct functioning related with human resource is being directly handled by line managers. Line managers at Harrods handle the role of selection & recruitment, payroll management, assessing customer satisfaction and adopting measure for enhancing employee motivation.

LO 2 Understand ways of developing flexibility within the workplace

In order to develop flexibility approach within the workplace it is important to have thorough research and active communication process with the employees of the organization. Communication practices with employees would explore way out regarding HR practices that best suit the organization.

P2.1- Explain how a model of flexibility might be applied in practice. Relate this to the Harrods and reflect your argument with examples

One of the vital models for human resource management flexibility used at workplace is the mixture model which can be applied to Harrods as given as below:

High functional flexibility

High numerical flexibility (HH)

High functional flexibility

Low numerical flexibility (HL)

Low functional flexibility

High numerical flexibility (LH)

Low functional flexibility

Low numerical flexibility (LL)

Figure 1: Showing the mixture model of flexibility (Ling, 2012)

In the above proposed model LL and HH region represent the balanced models whiles LH and HL regions represent the unbalanced model. There is difference in role played by functional and numerical flexibility at workplace. Difference in terms of employee’s ability would make an overall impact on the organizational performance. Firm would have best performance under HH model followed by HL, LH & LL models.

For Harrods it is recommended that HH model of flexibility should be employed in order to enhance the organizational performance. Functional flexibility can be employed in Harrods by deploying employees between various functions. For example an employee at cash counter can also work in the customer support division at retail store. Similarly Harrods can hire contract employee so as to handle rush during several occasion which would foster numerical flexibility in the organization. Hence a mix of the two flexibilities would help Harrods to ensure good performance.

Mixture model of functionality works according to the two main flexibility aspects which are numerical flexibility and functional flexibility. An organization need to develop employee skill set in various functions so as to foster functional flexibility while numerical flexibility needs to be foster in organization by hiring contract employees, part time employees and full time employees in the organizational context.

P 2.2 – Discuss the types of flexibility which may be developed by the Harrods.

There can be three types of flexibility that can be developed in Harrods and can be given as under:

Functional flexibility: Functional flexibility is sought in organizational environment in order to redeploy employee between various functions & role smoothly. Functional flexibility would mean to reduce occupation or job roles for the individuals. For example in NHS nurses are offered the job roles which were initially reserved for the medical staff (Jonathan, 2010).
Financial flexibility: Financial flexibility provided for the pay levels of employee would enable demarcation in demand & supply for employees in external labour market. For example in order to link cost to output variable pay linked with performance of sales staff has been spread over various departments of the organization. This would be important to reduce linkage between price and output.
Numerical flexibility: Numerical flexibility of the organization can be in terms of the number of employees working in the organization, number of hours worked or number of locations at which employees are working in the organization. In order to ensure numerical flexibility several organizations hire employees on contract basis or through part time jobs. Numerical flexibility of the organization depends upon the nature of business done by the organization. For example, supermarkets would be more interested to employ people on part time basis so as to match shopping hours of the customers while hospital would be interested to employ nurses on contract basis so as to meet peak demand for the hospitals.

In context of Harrods flexibility at workplace has been implemented as revealed through below points:

Offering work life choices for the employees which contains preferred meeting schedule, paid employee volunteering and compressed working schedule for one week
Defining reward structure which is in accordance with family such as offering break during children school off
Work policies such as work from home and flexible timings as per availability of time in organization
Special leave arrangement for parents, e.g. 22 weeks paid leave for mothers, 10 day paid leave for father and 52 week unpaid leave for mother to grow their child till age of six years
Unpaid life style or career break so that people can take long breaks and can join again

P 2.3 – Argue by assessing the use of flexible working practices from both the employee and the employer perspective of Harrods

Flexible working programs are arrangement where in employer would give levy for the employees to select their working time with higher flexibility such as flex time where in start and end time for the work are chosen by employee while ensuring that employee give fixed number of hours as stated by employer (Wright, 2011). Some of the common examples of flexible time job arrangement include job sharing and telecommuting etc. For Harrods example of flexible working practice can be given as under:

Offering work life choices for the employees which contains preferred meeting schedule, paid employee volunteering and compressed working schedule for one week
Special leave arrangement for parents, e.g. 22 weeks paid leave for mothers, 10 day paid leave for father and 52 week unpaid leave for mother to grow their child till age of six years
Unpaid life style or career break so that people can take long breaks and can join again

Benefit & limitations for the employer

Benefits

For an employer such as Harrods below can be some of the possible advantages for the flexible working practices:

Higher employee engagement & freedom involving higher performance
Emerging organization as an attractive employer to work with
Best possible tool for implementing employee retention as it has become necessity for the organization to allow flexible work schedule for the employee or taking risk for losing valuable human resource
To match the organization peak and valley of activities during which requirement for the human resource would vary
Reduced absenteeism which organization attain through flexible working schedule

Limitations

Some of the potential limitations for the flexible work schedule for Harrods include below mentioned:

Businesses and their managers need to recognize that flexible work schedule is not always applicable to all industries, people and business needs
It becomes burden for the organization as by providing flexibility to one employee there would be problem of work allotment to other employees working in the organization or organization has to suffer from work loss
In long run work schedule flexibility can create inequalities among employees leading bad working environment in the organization (Conaty and Ram, 2011)
Job flexibility creates problems for job success measurement and require higher investment for establishing continuous communication with its employees

Benefits & limitations for employees

Benefits

Employees working at Harrods can deploy below mentioned benefits through flexible work schedule practice employed in the organization:

Work life balance
Additional income through part time or contract jobs
Help in enhancing productivity
Facilities such as work from home offers opportunities for physically disables persons as well

Limitations

Some of the potential limitations for flexible schedule work