The three faces of personnel--or, PAIR department activities as seen by executives, line managers, and personnel directors.
More so than most other departments, the personnel department shares responsibility for its activities--notably with executives and line managers. But the division of responsibility is far from clear-cut, and where to draw the line is subject to controversy, as seen in this discussion of survey results on the viewpoints of 326 PAIR directors, 162 executives, and 217 line managers. The survey was conducted by the authors, all from Arizona State University: George W. Bohlander, associate professor of management; Harold C. White, professor of management; and Michael N. Wolfe, assistant professor. They queried the three groups on four major activities--setting policy, counseling and advising line managers, providing services, and controlling personnel activities in other departments--and 17 duties. The responses are broken down according to degree of unionization in respondent firms. Discrepancies among the viewpoints of the three groups suggest a need for two kinds of programs, say the authors: one to communicate to an organization's line managers and executives the role actually performed by the PAIR department and the other to instruct them on PAIR's potential for greater contribution.
D000288:Administrative Personnel; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D007750:Labor Unions; D010559:Personnel Management; D014481:United States