Human Resource Management

In this assignment I intend to outline the development of Personnel Management (PM) and Human resource management (HRM). Briefly describing their development and the role they play in a work place today. I will then discuss the role HRM played in changing the approaches adopted by management to employment, before finally hypothesising about the future direction of HRM.

PM can be traced all the way back to the late 18th century and the industrial revolution in England. However for the purpose of this assignment my analysis will begin much later after the Second World War (WW2). WW2 created a massive demand for labour and in particular personal specialists. It was in late 1946 that these specialists created the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM). In the 1960s employment laws were passed to create growth in the personnel function which meant PM had to evolve. In the 1970s further legislation was passed promoting sexual equality and standards in the work place which encouraged further development and at this stage the role of PM was as a mediator between management and employees. PM had a very low power base within business and was often referred to as the �trashcan’ as every undesirable job an organisation had to undertake was dumped on PM. For example PM would be left to explain management’s decisions to angry employees or fight management’s corner in disputes with workers unions. This meant that much of the work carried out by PM was reactive, they were also mainly left to work with the soft S’s: staff and support and most of their work was carried out in the short term. PM was never fully identified with management showing its lack of importance and respect to and from business respectively.

The 1980s and 90s saw a radical change in both the context and content of people management (human resource management theory and practice2003). These changes took place for a number of reasons. The economy in general was changing and there was a shift from manufacturing to service and the focus moved to customers both internally and externally. Huge technological strides were made during this period which allowed business to change with it. There was also a change in attitude towards employees so, family friendly policies were introduced and employers tried to help employees achieve a work life balance.

HRM started to become an integral part of business, where PM had been reactive HRM became proactive and was involved in decision making. They are also involved with management up to board level and contribute to the bottom line of the business (profit). HRM is now responsible for the hard S’s: strategic planning, structure, systems and service internal/external. HRM still includes the soft S’s and these are now much less involved because HRM is about planning ahead and making provisions for retirements, temporary cover for busy periods and other foreseeable and unforeseeable problems ahead. HRM staff now work closely with unions, with a close relationship both parties are now far better at avoiding union action and problems can generally be sorted quickly with little fuss.

There is still a great debate between academics as to whether HRM is a whole new concept or just a repackaging of PM. Some experts, for example Legge 1995 and Storey 1989; 1995 suggest that the message itself is not the important part, but that the messenger is of much more significance.

According to Bratton J Gold J 2003 pge15 Millwood et al show that HRM can today be broken down into eight basic functions:

• Planning

• Staffing

• Developing

• Motivating

• Maintaining

• Managing relationships

• Managing change

• Evaluating

�HRM represents the discovery of human capitals potential by senior management.’ Senior managers in business corporations realised the need to treat employees as more than just numbers. In order to gain greater employee commitment and organisational performance businesses became more employee friendly. To gain the full potential of their employees and respond to advances in technology and global markets big businesses realised that they needed to be more flexible in their approach to employment. There was suddenly a need to have a work home life balance and schemes such as flexi time were introduced, this allowed employees to build up a bank of time in order to for example have an afternoon off and go to a son’s sports day. Staff now also have much more control over �work patterns, work locations and work times’ in other words there is not a need