| Course | MHRM 6101 Foundations of Human Resource Management |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 2 |
| Paper type | Role brief |
| Length | About 740 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | MS in Human Resource Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MHRM 6101 Week 2
Six Parts of One Function: A Role Brief for Kestrel's Chief Financial Officer on What Each Piece of Human Resources Decides, Recommends and Is Blamed For
Student Name
Walden University
MHRM 6101: Foundations of Human Resource Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Six Parts of One Function: A Role Brief for Kestrel's Chief Financial Officer on What Each Piece of Human Resources Decides, Recommends and Is Blamed For
Purpose
Kestrel Freight & Warehousing, the composite central Ohio logistics firm used throughout this course, budgets human resources as a single line under the chief financial officer. This brief separates that line into six parts so that when a complaint about HR arrives, the reader can tell which part it concerns and who should answer it.
The Six Parts
Table 1
What Each Part of Kestrel's HR Function Decides, Recommends and Serves
| Part | Decides | Recommends to others | Main internal customer | Typical failure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recruiting and staffing | Where to advertise; which applicants reach interview | Whom to hire (site manager decides) | Site managers | Roles filled late or with poor fits | |
| Compensation and benefits | Job grades; benefit plan administration | Pay ranges and annual increases (CFO approves) | Finance and every employee | Pay that loses operators to competitors | |
| Employee relations | How complaints are investigated | Discipline outcomes (manager decides) | Supervisors and hourly staff | Disputes that escalate to lawyers or agencies | |
| Learning and development | Training content and schedules | Who is ready for promotion | Operations | New operators who work alone before they are safe | |
| HR operations and records | How data is entered and kept | Which reports leadership should see | Leadership and payroll | Records that cannot answer basic questions | |
| Policy and compliance support | Wording of handbook policies | Policy changes (leadership approves) | Leadership | Rules applied differently at each site | |
Composite organization. Decision rights reflect current practice, not a recommendation.
What the Table Shows
Read across the decision columns and a pattern appears: HR decides methods and records, while managers or finance decide the outcomes that most affect the business. Recruiting decides where to look but not whom to hire; compensation decides grades but not the budget. That split is common and not wrong in itself (Dessler, 2020). The point for the reader is that a complaint such as "HR can't keep operators" usually lands on compensation or on learning and development, and the fix may sit in a decision the finance office already holds.
Who Each Part Serves
The customer column matters because each part is judged by a different group. Ulrich (1997) argued that HR should be measured by the results it delivers to those it serves, not by its volume of activity. A recruiter who processes many requisitions has done a lot of work, but if site managers still wait weeks for operators, the recruiting part has failed its customer. Ulrich and Brockbank (2005) extend this to external customers: Kestrel's retail clients feel the effect of a poorly trained operator in mis-picked orders, even though they never meet anyone in HR.
Where a Decision Could Move
Two rows hold decisions worth watching. In compensation, HR proposes ranges but the finance office sets the budget once a year, so a mid-year jump in local warehouse wages leaves HR unable to respond until the next cycle. Last peak season, two experienced reach-truck operators left for a competitor offering a dollar more per hour while the request for a market adjustment waited for the annual review. In learning and development, HR designs operator training, yet site managers decide when a new hire works the floor alone, and under volume pressure that point arrives early. Neither arrangement is necessarily wrong. Each, however, places an outcome HR is blamed for in the hands of someone else, and the reader should know that before judging the function's results.
Limits of This Brief
The table describes how decisions are made at Kestrel now, based on the HR director's account and a review of recent requisitions and pay requests. It does not measure how well each part performs. A later brief could add one measure per row, such as days to fill an operator role or the share of new operators certified before working alone.
How to Use This Brief
When a concern reaches the finance office, the reader can locate it in a single row, ask what that part decides and what it only recommends, and route the question to whoever holds the decision. A complaint about slow hiring, for example, may belong partly to recruiting and partly to the site manager who took two weeks to schedule interviews. Over a quarter, a tally of complaints by row would show which part of the function most needs attention, and which concerns are really about decisions held outside HR.
References
Dessler, G. (2020). Human resource management (16th ed.). Pearson.
Ulrich, D. (1997). Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business School Press.
Ulrich, D., & Brockbank, W. (2005). The HR value proposition. Harvard Business School Press.
MHRM 6101 Week 2 instructions, in plain terms
Week 2 asks you to describe the parts of an HR function for a reader outside it. State the brief's purpose in a sentence or two. Build one table that asks identical questions of every part, because that is what makes them comparable. Include what each part decides and what it only recommends, since that distinction explains much of how HR is judged. Name each part's main internal customer. Then draw out what the table shows and give the reader a practical way to use it. Keep the brief short and aimed at a busy executive who does not need definitions of every term. A brief that fits on two pages is more likely to be read in full.
Inside the MHRM 6101 Week 2 example
A two-sentence purpose opens the brief. The table covers recruiting, compensation and benefits, employee relations, learning and development, records and policy support, with five columns each. A section reads across the decision columns and notes that outcomes mostly sit with managers or finance. A section on customers draws on Ulrich and on Ulrich and Brockbank. A section flags the market pay adjustment that waited for the annual cycle and the early solo shifts for new operators. A short limits paragraph notes that the table describes decisions but not performance. A final section explains how to route a complaint to the right row. Every row of the table is filled, including the typical failure, so no part of the function escapes comparison.
Reading the MHRM 6101 Week 2 rubric
Role briefs earn credit for clarity and comparability. One grid posing identical questions to every part shows the writer understands how the function divides. Distinguishing decisions from recommendations demonstrates insight into where accountability really lies. Naming internal customers connects the function to the people it serves. Interpretation of the table, rather than repetition of it, is weighted heavily. The reader should finish with something practical to do. Accuracy about typical HR responsibilities matters. Briefs that list HR activities in paragraphs without comparing them, or that drift into general praise for HR, receive lower marks.
MHRM 6101 Week 2 help from the desk
List the parts of HR at an organization you know, even if one person does several of them. For each, ask four questions: what can this part decide on its own, what does it only recommend, who inside the organization depends on it and what goes wrong when it fails. Put the answers in a grid. Then look across the grid for patterns, such as which outcomes HR is blamed for but does not control. Keep the reader in mind: someone senior who has never worked in HR. Many briefs describe tasks without decision rights. If you want help sorting decision rights, list what each part of your HR team does. Two pages is usually enough for this kind of brief.
Get a MHRM 6101 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send the prompt and the rubric, and say which function or organization your section assigns; the brief is built on that structure with the same four questions put to every part. First custom sample free, back within 24 to 48 hours. The logistics firm and its finance chief are stand-ins, so nothing about your own HR team is needed.
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MHRM 6101 Week 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free MHRM 6101 Week 2 sample paper?
This page shows the six-part HR role brief for free.
Who is the reader of the MHRM 6101 Week 2 brief?
The chief financial officer of a composite logistics firm, who oversees HR without having worked in it.
What questions does the table ask?
What each part decides, what it recommends, whom it serves and how it typically fails.
What pattern does the table reveal?
HR decides methods and records, while managers or finance decide most of the outcomes HR is judged on.
How can the reader use the brief?
By locating each complaint in one row and routing it to whoever holds the relevant decision.