Human Resource Management (HRM) at Work

Are people ‘mere’ resources Pierre Casse in the article people are not resources argues;  If a corporate leader defines the people who are working for the organisation as human resources, then there is a good chance that they will be treated merely as resources.  Suggests that the time has come to look at people in the corporation not as mere resources but as real partners.

It’s All About Results “For many years it has been said that capital is the bottleneck for a developing industry. I don’t think this any longer holds true. I think it’s the work force and a company’s inability to recruit and maintain a good work force that constitute the bottleneck….” F. K. Foulkes

People make the difference In the article people make the difference, Les Pickett writes that research in business studies and corporate sustainability show that;  People are the key to business success  People provide business enterprises with their only long term sustainable advantage  Developing people can dramatically improve bottom line results  Business problems are caused by people who do not know what to do

The Irony  People want to know what to do and how to do it. They want to know what is expected of them, how they are progressing, where they fit in and what their manager think of their performance.  It is therefore the responsibility of the organisation to strategically articulate what exactly is expected of each individuals – and not relegate the responsibility to the individual

HRM – Perspectives  The Hard Model: human resource seen as much the same as any other resource – land and capital and it is used as management sees fit.  The Soft Model: focuses on the management of ‘resourceful humans’ and it assumes that employees are valued assets and a source of competitive advantage through their skills and abilities

HRM - perspective  As a style of managing: which is capable of being measured, defined and compared with an ideal.  where there is one best way of managing staff and that is by gaining their commitment and loyalty in order to ensure that they deliver their best performance.

HRM – perspective  As a field of study: examines how management of employment vary between workplaces and over time. It allows us to examine the extent to which external factors impact: management choice employee relations, and worker attitudes and behaviours

IR, PM & HRM HRM contrasted with  Industrial Relations: the theoretical basis of the subject  Personnel Management: practice and perspective concerning employment management

History of HRM  The four stages of quality improvement in HRM 1. Pre-industrial period 2. Paternalist period 3. Bureaucratic period 4. High performance period

Pre-industrial period  Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Medieval statutes of labourers was the regulatory backdrop for HRM Principles of compulsory labour and physical punishment for idleness Bonded labour the only way to procure training in a craft Employee given notice before discharged

Paternalist period  Late eighteenth to early nineteenth century Expansion of markets and industrialisation Abolition of slavery and development of management practices Ideology of free labour evolved Right to be terminated at will Bribery for jobs evolved Strikes and unrest

Bureaucratic period  Late nineteenth to mid twentieth century Management experts and trade unions forced to reform HR practices Advance scientific management practices led to fractionalisation of jobs, effective selection, training and incentives Rationalisation and control of the workplace Bureaucratisation proceeded to the evolution of personnel department Job analysis, job evaluation, job classification, training and development and employee selection techniques evolved in response to the arbitrary Protective legislation focused on individual rights

High performance period  Late 1970s and after Renewal of public support for free market ideology Important industries deregulated and monetary policy stabilized Numerous experimentation, organisational citizenship, empowered workforce, commitment, motivation, personal mastery Power sharing, self managing teams and job enrichment Learning through experimentation

HRM – issues & challenges in the new millennium  PERSONNEL Attract and retain highly skilled people Changing employee expectation Establishing cost effective plan to provide for employee needs – benefits Become champion of employee issues Training and development Responsibility towards employees for creating workplace value

 TECHNOLOGY Automated manufacturing processes Personnel software packages Telecommunications and technology Intellectual property rights Computer packages in HRM HRM – issues & challenges in the new millennium

 GLOBALISATION Economic unions Positioning strategies Global benchmarking Competition Cultural impact Economic impact HRM – issues & challenges in the new millennium