Path ahead to human resource management

Organizations that seek better competitive advantage today, pay more attention to its people
and treat them as resource. Human Resource management is a kind of philosophy which is
supported by theories, focusing behavior of people and organization. Institutional theory, Human
capital theory, Motivation, The resource based view, contingency theory etc. (Amstronge, 2006)

Welfare Movement
In early years, in the industrial revolution of 18th century, organizations consider their workforce
as same as the other factors of production process and viewed as a cost to the business.
Therefore people in the organizations had to work hard with prolonged working hours. At that
time some large manufacturing companies like Cadbury, Rowntree, and Liver which valued their
workers paid more concern about welfare of their employees therefore in that era personnel had
a welfare role by provisions of health and education of employees. This was a voluntary effort of
aforesaid large companies practiced.
After the industrial revolution production was done in large volumes and labor force requirement
increased. Therefore unskilled and semi - skilled workers also entered to the labor force and it
was required to increase efficiency of the production. The scientific management theory became
into the scene and it was focused to increase economic efficiency and especially labour
productivity by analyzing and synthesizing workflows.

Scientific Management
Frederick
W.
Taylor (1856‐1915)
,Henry
L.
Gantt (1861‐1919)
,
and
Frank
and
Lillian

Gilbreth (1868‐1924
and
1878‐1972) who belonged to Scientific Management school, 

developed
principles
known
as
scientific
 management
theory. Frederick Taylor, known as
the father of scientific management was identified the skills needed for a particular job and would
hire and train workers to perform to the required standards. Employees were rewarded with a
‘differential piece rate’ pay system that rewarded work output. Taylor’s ‘time and motion’
studies, which would find the ‘one best way’ of performing a task.
A large scale car manufacturer, Henry Ford continued with the scientific management approach
and developed an assembly line where the workers were allowed a minimum amount of time to
complete a task before the car moved to the next stage in the production process.
 Strategic
Human
The human Human
Welfare Scientific Resource
relations Resource Future ?
Movement Management Management
movement Management
Approach
Approach

Figure 1 : Evolution of HR Management

The human relations movement

Human relations movement was the key stone of modern human resource management. It was
considered the group behavior and employees feelings. Elton Mayo’s and the famous Hawthorne
experiments in human relations movement shifted the view of people management away from
the mechanistic principles of scientific management and towards a behavioral approach of
satisfying the social needs of workers. The human relations movement which proposed the view
that the social side of work was important for improving performance.
During 1945 to 1960 employee productivity was an important factor concerned. Various
motivation techniques, considering welfare issues, creating job descriptions to improve
recruitment and selection, compensation evaluation strategies, official recognition of trade
unions and increasing collective bargaining for welfare increases were the attempts of increase
employee productivity. During this period employment laws were enacted.

Human Resource Management Approach

Human resource management is an important function of top management and it is integrated
with the vision and strategy of the organisation today. Human resource management differ from
personal management in its focus, principles and applications.
 Personnel Management Human Resource management
Traditional approach in managing people in the Modern approach in managing people and their
organization. strengths in the organization.
Focusses on personnel administration, employee Focuses on acquisition, development, motivation
welfare and labor relation. and maintenance of the human resources of the
organization
Assumes people as an input for achieving desired Assumes people as an important and valuable
output. resource for achieving desired output.
Personnel function is undertaken for employee’s Administrative function is undertaken for goal
satisfaction. achieving.
Job design is done on the basis of division of Job design function is done on the basis of group
labour. work/ team work.
Employees are provided with less training and Employees are provided with more training and
development development.
Management decisions are made by the top Management decisions are made collectively after
management as per the rules and regulations of considering employee’s participation, authority,
the organization. decentralization, competitive environment etc.
Focusses on increased production and satisfied Focusses on effectiveness, culture, productivity
employees. and employee’s participation.
Concerned with personnel manager Concern with all level of managers from top to
bottom
PM is a routing function HRM is a strategic function

The 1980s also saw the term ‘human resource management’ (HRM) introduced. The meaning of
the term has led to many debates and academic discussions. To some, it was seen as a way of
minimizing the trades unions’ influence, and the name change from ‘personnel’ symbolized this.
Others saw HRM as a more strategic role in the achievement of organizational objectives, with
an HR director at board level.
There are four generic processes or functions of HRM.
1. Selection
2. Performance appraisal
3. Rewards.
4. Development

Strategic Human Resource Management Approach

In SHRM, human resources strategies are integrated with other business strategies of the
organisation in order to achieve organizational objectives. This vertical integration is favourable
but it will be difficult to achieve due to Diversity of strategic processes, levels and styles, the
complexity of the strategy formulation process, the evolutionary nature of business strategy, the
absence of articulated business strategies, and the qualitative nature of HR issues.
Resource based view in SHRM is mostly applied. Human Resources are equally considered as
other resources of the organisation. Find, absorb, and retain skillful staff is a challenge to modern
organisation as it is necessary for acquire competitive advantage. Therefore it is oncerned eith
the resource based strategy of HRM.
Policies and processes fall into four areas as described in Harvard model of strategic HRM.
1. Employee influence
2. Human resource flow.
3. Rewards systems.
4. Work systems.
(Hrmguide.co.uk,2018)

A New Era for HR: http://hrexecutive.com/new-beginnings/

Globalisation and HRM

World population is increasing and employability opportunities are shrinking. Labour market is
changing continuously within dynamic environment. Female workers percentage is increasing and
union membership is declining. Employment is production sector are decreasing while service
sector employments have more demand. Mechanization and automation restricts employment
opportunities in production sector but growth in disposable per capita income raise the demand in
service sector.
Globalisation affect to change in industry profiles and modern labour market. Globalisation
integrates and trigger movement in labour, capital, goods and services across the borders. Partial
and full trade agreements allow custom tariffs and tax free movement in these elements and
therefore HRM practices show similarities in modern world. Multinational companies also exhibits
similar HRM practices across countries. Union membership is decreasing due to the globalisation
all over the world .Therefore HR management in new millennium is seamless and dynamic in
nature.
Ethical context of HRM
Ethical dimension in HRM emerged from welfare movement of large manufacturing companies
in 18th century and human relation movement and human resource management are in evolutionary
process. HR has a mediatory role in individual ethics and business ethics. Business ethics are
important in increasing company reputation, employee loyalty and legal considerations. Therefore
today organisations are promoting business ethics.
Ethical issues may rise in employment relationship including ethics of discrimination and
employee’s rights and duties. Decline of trade unionism and more individualist approaches brought
ethics into core of HRM in western societies. Because declining the collectivism put employees
vulnerable to opportunistic and unethical behavior of employers and claimed necessity of HR
ethics (Pinnington, Macklin, and Campbell, 2007).

Reference and Bibliography

2012books.lardbucket.org.(2012) Beginning Management of Human Resources. Available at:
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-management-of-human-resources/s05-01-
what-is-human-resources.htm (Accessed: 23 March 2018)
Armstrong, M (2006) A hand book of Human resource management practice. Kogan page
limited: Philadelphia. Available at:
http://www.academia.edu/download/40688191/Armstrong_s_Handbook_of_Human_Resourc
e_Management_Practice_by_Michael_Armstrong_Stephen_Taylor.pdf (Accessed: 30.March
2018)
Hrmguide.co.uk (2018) The Harvard map of HRMo. Available at:
http://hrmguide.co.uk/introduction_to_hrm/harvard-map.htm (Accessed: 23 March 2018)
Ibfbd.org. (2018)The role of Human Resource Management :part 1. Available
at:http://ibfbd.org/img/resource/1491117375_SampleChapter_01.pdf (Accessed: 23.03.2018)
Pinnington, A., Macklin, R., & Campbell, T. (Eds.). (2007). Human resource management: Ethics and
employment. Oxford University Press.