Content1. Definition of Human Resource Management (2)2. Differences between HRM and PM (2)3. Four stages of HRM development (5)4.Key functions of HRM (5)5. Reference (5)Definition of Human Resource ManagementHuman resource management (HRM, HM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. HRM can also be performed by line managers.[1]HRM is an organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training etc. [2]HRM is also a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective HRM enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the organization's goals and objectives. [3]HRM is moving away from traditional personnel, administration, and transactional roles, which are increasingly outsourced. HRM is now expected to add value to the strategic utilization of employees and that employee programs impact the business in measurable ways. The new role of human resource management involves strategic direction and human resource management metrics and measurements to demonstrate value. [4]Differences between HRM and PMPersonnel management (PM) is basically an administrative record-keeping function, at the operational level. PM attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment, while at the same time, efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments etc. It is assumed that the outcomes from providing justice and achieving efficiency in the management of personnel activities will result ultimately in achieving organizational success. [5]HRM is concerned with carrying out the same functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as HR planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development etc. But, the HRM approach performs these functions in a qualitatively distinct way, when compared with personnel management.The following are several main differences between PM and HRM:1) PM is workforce-centered, directed mainly at the orga nization’s employees; such as finding and training them, arranging for them to be paid, explaining management’s expectations, justifying management’s action s etc. Nevertheless, HRM is resource–centered, directed mainly at management, in terms of devolving theresponsibility of HRM to line management and administrative development etc.2) Although indisputably an administrative function, PM has never totally identified with management interests, as it becomes ineffective when not able to understand and articulate the aspirations and views of the workforce, just as sales representatives have to understand and articulate the aspirations of the customers.3) PM is basically an operational function, concerned primarily with carrying out the day-to-day people management activities. HRM is strategic in nature, which is, being concerned with directly assisting an organization to gain sustained competitive advantages.4) HRM is more proactive than PM. PM is about the maintenance of personnel and administrative systems; HRM is about the forecasting of organizational needs, the continual monitoring and adjustment of personnel systems to meet current and future requirements, and administration changes.Four stages of HRM developmentSocial Justice●The origins of personnel management lie in nineteenth century, deriving from thework of social reformers such as Lord Shaftesbury and Robert Owen.●Their criticism of the free enterprise system and the leadership created by theexploitation of workers by factory owners enabled the first personnel managers to be appointed and provided the first frame of reference in which they worked: to ameliorate the lot of workers●Such concerns are not obsolete. There are still regular reports of employees beingexploited by employers flouting the law, and the problem of organizational distance between decision makers and those putting decisions into practice remains a source of alienation from work.●In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries some of the larger employers witha paternalist outlook began to appoint welfare officers to manage a series of newinitiatives designed to make less harsh of their employees.●Prominent examples were the progressive schemes of unemployment benefit, sickpay and subsidized housing provided by the Quaker family firms of Cadbury and Rowntree, and Lever Brothers’ soap business.●While the motives were ostensibly charitable, there was and remains a business aswell as an ethical case for paying serious attention to the welfare of employees.●This is based on the contention that it improves commitment on the part of staffand leads potential employees to compare the organization favorably competitors.●The result is higher productivity, a longer-serving workforce and a bigger pool ofapplicants for each job. It has also been argued that a commitment to welfare reduces the scope for the development of adversarial industrial relations.●The more conspicuous welfare initiatives promoted by employers today includeemployee assistance schemes, childcare facilities and health-screening programs.Human Bureaucracy●This phase marked the beginnings of a move away from a sole focus on welfaretowards the meeting of various other organizational objectives. Personnel managers began to gain responsibilities in the areas of staffing, training and organization design.●Influenced by social scientists such as F.W. Taylor and Henri Fayol personnelspecialists started to look at how organizational structures could be designed and labor deployed so as to maximize efficiency.●The human bureaucracy stage in the development of personnel thinking was alsoinfluenced by the Human Relations School, which sough to ameliorate the potential for industrial conflict and dehumanization present in too rigid an application of these scientific management approaches.●Following the ideas of thinkers such as Elton Mayo, the fostering of socialrelationships in the workforce and employee morale thus became equally important objectives for personnel professionals to raise productivity levels. Consent by negotiation●Personnel managers next added expertise in bargaining to their repertoire ofskills.●In the period of full employment following the Second World War labor became ascarce resource. This led to a growth in trade union membership and to what Alian Flanders, the leading industrial relations analyst of the 1960s, called “the challenge from below”.●Personnel specialists managed the new collective institutions such as jointconsultation committees, joint production committees and suggestion schemes set up in order to accommodate the new realities. In the industries that were nationalized in the 1940s, employers were placed under a statutory duty to negotiate with unions representing employees.●To help achieve this, the government encouraged the appointment of personnelofficers and set up the first specialist courses for them in the universities.● A personnel management advisory service was also set up at the Ministry ofLabor, which still survives as the first A in ACAS.Organization and Integration●The late 1960s saw a switch in focus among personnel specialists, away fromdealing principally with the rank-and-file employee on behalf of management, towards dealing with management itself and the integration of managerial activity.●This phase was characterized by the development of career paths and ofopportunities within organizations for personal growth.●This too remains a concern of personal specialists today, with a significantportion of time and resources being devoted to the recruitment, development and retention of an elite core of people with specialist expertise on whom the business depends for its future.●Personnel specialists developed techniques of manpower or workforce planning.This is basically a quantitative activity, boosted by the advent of information technology, which involves forecasting the likely need for employees with different skills in the future.Key functions of HRM1)Human resource planning or employment planning is the process by which anorganization attempts to ensure that it as the right number of qualified people in the right jobs at the right time2)Job analysis defines a job in terms of specific tasks and responsibilities andindentifies the abilities, sills and qualifications needed to perform it successfully.3)Employee recruitment is the process of seeking and attracting a pool ofapplicants from which qualified candidates for job vacancies within an organization can be selected.4)Employee selectio n involves choosing from the available candidates theindividual predicted to be most likely to perform successfully in the job.5)Performance appraisal is concerned with determining how well employees aredoing their jobs, communicating that information to employees and establishing a plan for performance improvement.6)Training and development activities help employees learn how to perform theirjobs, improve their performance and prepare themselves for more senior positions.7)Career planning and development activities benefit both employees and theorganizations.8)Employee motivation is vital to the success of any organization. Highlymotivated employees tend to be more productive and have rates of absenteeism and turnover.Reference1.Armstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice(10th ed.). London: Kogan Page. ISBN 0-7494-4631-5. OCLC 622822482. Towers, David. "Human Resource Management essays".http://www.towers.fr/essays/hrm.html. Retrieved 2007-10-17.3. By Susan M. Heathfield, Guide/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm4. Pfeffer, J. (1994) Competitive advantage through people, Harvard Business School 4 /od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm5.‘Personnel management’. The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). Columbia University Press. 2005. /65/x-/X-personne.html. Retrieved 2007-10-17. "Personnel management - see industrial management".。
