Reflective Report Writing Assignment: The Role Of Line Managers

Reflective Report
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Introduction
Line managers play a very role important in a company, not only managing operations and people on daily basis, but they also implement of human resource policies (Torrington, Hall, Taylor, and Atkinson, 2017). This happens mostly in organizations where there is devolution of activities of HR towards the line managers. The line management manages resources and employees in pursuit of specific organizational or functional goals. Therefore, this report elaborates that proper consideration should be given to the process of selecting line managers, developing them and managing the ongoing basis.
The role of Line Managers
Traditionally, the main role of line manager has been simply “tell and monitor.” This means telling people/employees what to do as well as make sure it is done properly. However, changes are taking place transforming the view of this subject matter. In the modern day world, line managers have been more entrusted with developing human resource, and to some extent, they are held liable for any shortcoming in the company (Torrington et al., 2017). However, it could be difficult for first-line managers who are taking extra responsibilities because of the existing workloads, the inadequacy of skills as well as inexperience in fulfilling that role.
Line managers communicate and ensure understanding of departmental or functional goals and provide training/support to employees. An effort to assuming roles of developmental focus as well as undertaking positions such as learning and skills expansion facilitators has been adopted by line managers. These are some of the recent trends of empowering workers at all organizational levels to increase their knowledge as well as responsibilities (Torrington et al., 2017). This also ensures that multi-skilled employees are available to handle possible situations that the company could direct them in the future.
Line managers also evaluate the overall team as well as the individual performance and deliver the performance reviews. However, the processes of performance appraisal could be designed by the HR professionals but they are implemented by first-line managers (Torrington et al., 2017). Moreover, employee behaviors and performance are assessed as well as rated by the direct line managers. Additionally, they provide the feedback in a meeting with the employee. An effective feedback ought to be conveyed in an understandable and sincere manner (Bratton and Gold, 2017). However, if the line managers seem disinterested and use a tick box approach to the appraisal, there will be no credibility in the process.
Line managers identify the need for corrective measures. Similarly, in the workplace, discipline starts when the line manager defines his/her expectations with their team. However, such expectations could be supported by policies as well as procedures brought forth by the HR department. However, the commitment of the line manager to enforce the rules in the group is likely to influence to a greater extent the employee behavior and performance than a polished employee handbook (Torrington et al., 2017). Similarly, if the line manager is instead the one breaking the rules, he/she will struggle to...