IB Diploma Programme Business Management HL, Unit 2 Human resource management (first assessment 2024). This topic covers syllabus sections 2.1–2.7 in full: the introduction to HRM and HR planning, organisational structure, leadership and management, motivation and demotivation, organisational (corporate) culture (HL only), communication, and industrial/employee relations (HL only). The worked examples follow the shared repair business, now grown to 80 employees across four workshops, so every number cross-checks with Unit 1.

Must-know for Unit 2:

Human resource management 人力资源管理 (2.1) plans, recruits, trains, appraises and rewards the workforce so that the business has the right people in the right roles. HR PLANNING responds to INTERNAL factors (the firm's objectives, finance, structure) and EXTERNAL factors: demographic change (an ageing workforce), changing labour mobility and immigration, flexi-time and remote working, and the GIG economy of short contracts. Workers RESIST change for five classic reasons — self-interest, low tolerance of uncertainty, misinformation, misunderstanding and a different assessment of the situation — and Kotter and Schlesinger's responses run from education and communication, participation and facilitation, through negotiation, to manipulation and coercion as last resorts.

Structure (2.2) is described by its vocabulary. The span of control 管理幅度 is the number of subordinates one manager directs; the CHAIN OF COMMAND is the line of authority from top to bottom; LEVELS OF HIERARCHY count the layers; delegation 授权 passes authority (not responsibility) downward; BUREAUCRACY is rule-bound administration; CENTRALISATION keeps decisions at the top while DECENTRALISATION pushes them down; DE-LAYERING removes levels. A TALL structure has many levels and narrow spans — clear promotion paths but slow communication; a FLAT structure has few levels and wide spans — faster and cheaper but heavier loads on each manager. Charts may be drawn by FUNCTION (HR, finance, marketing, operations), by PRODUCT or by REGION; a MATRIX structure crosses functions with projects, giving each person two managers. Project-based structures and Handy's SHAMROCK (core staff, contractors, flexible workers) are the modern shapes.

Worked example. With 80 staff, one owner-manager and four workshop managers each supervising 19 mechanics gives three levels and a span of 19 at the bottom — too wide for coaching, so the owner adds a senior mechanic in each workshop: four levels, span of control 9–10, and the chain of command for a customer complaint lengthens by one link.

Management (2.3) plans, organises, directs and controls; LEADERSHIP sets direction and inspires. The leadership style 领导风格 chosen should fit the task and the people: AUTOCRATIC (leader decides, fast but demotivating), PATERNALISTIC (decides in the workers' interest), DEMOCRATIC (consults and shares decisions — better ideas, slower), LAISSEZ-FAIRE (hands off, for experts) and SITUATIONAL (switches style by circumstance).

Motivation 激励 (2.4) theories: TAYLOR — scientific management, pay by output; MASLOW — a hierarchy from physiological needs through safety, belonging and esteem to self-actualisation; HERZBERG — HYGIENE factors (pay, conditions, policy) prevent dissatisfaction while MOTIVATORS (achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth) create satisfaction; McCLELLAND — acquired needs for achievement, affiliation and power; DECI AND RYAN — self-determination through autonomy, competence and relatedness. HL adds EQUITY theory (fairness of inputs to outputs compared with others) and EXPECTANCY theory (effort → performance → reward, each link believed). Labour turnover 员工流动率 measures the outcome: leavers divided by average staff, times 100 — 12 leavers from 80 is 15% a year, costing recruitment, training and lost knowledge. HR practices: an appraisal 绩效评估 may be formative (developmental), summative (judging), 360-degree (all round) or self-appraisal; recruitment is INTERNAL (cheap, known, but no new ideas) or EXTERNAL; training is INDUCTION, ON-THE-JOB or OFF-THE-JOB. FINANCIAL rewards: salary, time and piece wages, commission, performance-related and profit-related pay, employee share ownership, fringe payments; NON-FINANCIAL: job enrichment, rotation and enlargement, empowerment, purpose and teamwork.

Communication 沟通 (2.6) is FORMAL (meetings, reports, emails through the chain of command) or INFORMAL (the grapevine); barriers include language and jargon, information overload, poor channel choice, physical distance and lack of trust. Every structure and style above is only as good as the communication that carries it.

Worked example. The 15% turnover is concentrated among mechanics on piece rates who feel their effort is unrewarded when parts arrive late. Herzberg reads late parts and pay disputes as hygiene failures to fix first; expectancy theory (HL) says the effort-to-reward link is broken. The owner moves to a base salary plus a team bonus and a formative appraisal; turnover falling to 8% (6 of 80) would save the cost of six replacements.

Organisational culture 组织文化 (2.5, HL only) is the set of shared values, beliefs and norms — "how things are done here" — carried by symbols, rituals, stories and leaders' behaviour. Handy's four types: POWER culture (a central figure, fast and personal), ROLE culture (bureaucratic, rule-defined jobs), TASK culture (project teams, expertise valued) and PERSON culture (the individual professional first). CULTURAL CLASHES arise when firms merge, when new leaders arrive or when a business grows across countries; consequences include lost staff, slower decisions and failed integration, so due diligence on culture precedes a merger.

Industrial/employee relations (2.7, HL only) manage the conflict between employers and employees over pay, conditions, security and change. Employees act through collective bargaining 集体谈判 (a union negotiating for all), work-to-rule, overtime bans and strikes; employers through bargaining, threats of redundancy, changes of contract, closure and lock-outs. Resolution: CONCILIATION (a neutral third party helps the sides agree), ARBITRATION (the third party decides, binding or not), employee participation and industrial democracy, no-strike agreements and single-union agreements. The concept ETHICS asks whether the process was fair, CHANGE whether the settlement lasts.

Worked example. The repair business acquires a rival with a role culture of written procedures, where its own culture is a task culture of self-managing teams; the acquired mechanics resist the new freedom and the owners' mechanics resent the paperwork — a clash Handy predicts. When the acquired staff's union demands the owners' bonus scheme, conciliation through a neutral mediator keeps the decision with the parties; binding arbitration would settle it faster but hand control to the arbitrator.

• HRM's role; the five external HR-planning factors; the five reasons for resistance and the Kotter–Schlesinger ladder (2.1).
• Span of control, chain of command, levels, delegation, bureaucracy, (de)centralisation, de-layering; tall vs flat; function/product/region; matrix, project-based, shamrock (2.2).
• Management vs leadership; the five styles with when each fits (2.3).
• Taylor, Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland, Deci and Ryan; equity and expectancy (HL); labour turnover 12/80 = 15%; appraisal types; recruitment and training; financial and non-financial rewards (2.4).
• Culture's elements; Handy's four types; clashes and their consequences (2.5 HL).
• Formal and informal communication; the barriers (2.6).
• Conflict sources; employee and employer actions; conciliation vs arbitration and the participation routes (2.7 HL).

Boundary notes: Paper 1 asks for motivation theories applied to the case, not recited; Paper 2 may ask for the labour-turnover calculation and an organisational chart; Paper 3's social-enterprise plan leans on culture and participation (2.5, 2.7). All worked numbers are original on the shared repair business.