The Foundation and Challenges of Human Resource Management CASE STUDY NEW BEGININGS AT MARKETSMART New beginnings at MarketSmart Peter completed his BCom Marketing degree at Future Generations University and he joined a marketing company MarketSmart shortly thereafter. Peter really had a lot of potential and his manager, Nila realized this very soon. Although he was still inexperienced she gave him exposure to a variety of aspects related to the business and their section and he soon found himself in a position where he had to take responsibility for their section during times that Nila was not around. Everything was going well until one morning when he heard the news that Nila was in a terrible accident and she was in hospital, the CEO of the company approached Peter and asked him to Act as the manager of their section until Nila was able to return to work. Although he has acted as the manager occasionally before he was never tasked with her full responsibility for a lengthy period of time. That evening he arrives at his flat and he speaks to his flatmate. You will never guess what happened today he said Nila was in an accident and she has been hospitalized and the CEO asked me to take over her responsibilities during her absence. His flatmate Amir replied Wow thats wonderful I am so proud of you this is really a wonderful experience for you!. Peter smiles and thanked Amir for his well wishes but secretly he was a bit stressed and he thought to himself what if I mess up or if I am confronted with a situation that I cannot handle?. His girlfriend Thandi visits him later that evening and he discussed his new situation with her. She puts his mind at ease Remember that you can call on the HR Department to deal with all the HR issues...thats not your responsibility you are a line manager not in HR. Peter feels a bit less anxious and as she leaves he goes to bed hoping for a good nights rest. Amir sits in his room he accidently heard Thandis last statement and he does not agree at all, he thinks to himself Wow Peter is in for a rude awakening, if he wants to be a line manager he needs to take all the responsibilities that goes with it, there will definitely be HR matters that he will have to handle he cannot shove this responsibility onto HR.

Questions

3. Two weeks after Peter has taken up this new role he asks Amir to help him with a report, the CEO wants to restructure the company and he has asked for inputs from all the line managers in the company as he wants to improve the support to line managers. He wants to compile a document where they include the typical HR related matters that line managers have to deal with and the challenges they have experienced. Peter finished most of the report and asks Amir to help him with the last few aspects. They phone you to help them, during the conversation you identify the following aspects that you think Peter should also include policies and procedures, training on conducting performance appraisals, communication and labour relations. Help Peter to include these in his report remember to do this from line managements perspective and include how HR should provide support in each case. (10)