What can the human resource management department contribute to the Assignment

What can the human resource management department contribute to the development of successful leadership within an organization - Assignment Example Man creates or overlooks opportunities and scenarios. Hence, people power is considered the most significant and dominant factor of all the resources available to an organization. In this regard, the essay aims to determine what the human resource management department can contribute to the development of successful leadership within an organization. The discourse would initially define relevant terms that would be used in the paper including human resources management, leadership, competencies, and the difference between behavioral and functional approaches to job performance. Definition of Terms Martires (2004) defined human resources management as â€Å"the art and science of acquiring, motivating, maintaining, and developing people in their jobs in light of their personal, professional, and technical knowledge, skills, potentials, needs and values and in synchronization with the achievement of individual, organization and society’s goals† (p. 6). Human resources dep artments in some organizations are subsumed in another department or it may be a separate department itself. As one of the primary functions of human resources management (HRM), development of human resources require the registration, tracing, and insuring of all personnel’s progress through continued job proficiency, career growth and guidance. Competencies are upgraded and expertise is developed in this broadening phase of people management. By competencies, the definition provided by Boyatzis (1982) is most appropriate: â€Å"an underlying characteristic of an employee (i.e., a motive, trait, skill, aspects of one’s selfimage, social role, or a body of knowledge) which results in effective and/or superior performance† (Cited in USOPM, 1999, p. 7). Likewise, leadership has been defined as the process of influencing people to work or act towards the attainment of specifically defined goals (Martires & Fule, 2000, p. 569). On the other hand, that Ken Valenzuela, the Chief Editor for BeALeader.Net collected various definitions of leadership: â€Å"Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal† (Northouse, 2004). His own definition is hereby presented as â€Å"the ability of developing and communicating a vision to a group of people that will make that vision true† (Kenneth Valenzuela, 2007). Authors Lussier & Achua (2004) define leadership as â€Å"the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through changes† (Lussier & Achua, 2004). There are different types of leaders depending on the personality of the leader and subordinates and the situation. Different leadership theories stipulate diverse leadership styles, such as: the behavioral approach (autocratic, democratic and laissez faire leaders); there is the task-oriented versus people-oriented leaders; and contemporary theories present the emergence of transformational leaders and servant leadership styles. Leadership and Management Development The article published by the US OPM revealed trends in HRM that focus on the rise of competencies where leadership and management development begin to assume more challenging roles in light of the changing forces affecting HRM in contemporary organizations. The trends that were revealed are hereby summed as â€Å"