HRM STRATEGIC THEORIES

HRM Strategic Theories

HRM Strategic Theories

Introduction

Human Resource Management or Personnel management is the activity of managing personnel, usually employees. In any organization, managing personnel is the process of making sure the employees (not the customers) are as productive as they can be. This can include hiring, firing, or transferring people to/from jobs they can do most productively. This subject is a major at many universities, or a minor in the business school. It is also known as personnel administration, which is functionally an equivalent term.

As we enter the new millennium more and more companies are recognizing the importance of managing their human resources as effectively as possible. They are also recognizing that doing so, however, cannot be done without recognition and incorporation of the global context. It is virtually impossible to read a business periodical or newspaper anywhere in the world without seeing stories detailing the success of a company due to how effectively it manages its people. As the environment becomes more global, managing people also becomes more challenging, more unpredictable and uncertain and more subject to rapid change and surprise. The importance of managing people effectively, many companies are devoting a great deal more time, attention, skill and effort to have a competitive edge. Researchers indicate that the competency levels of HR managers in high performing firms are significantly higher than those of HR managers in low performing firms.

Within the context of the business, this report will discuss the three areas of study regarding managing human resource in a competitive environment: Strategic human resource management; Recruitment and selection and motivation.

The History of Human Resource Management

Human resource management is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. Human resource management is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce.

Human resource management has it roots in the late and early 1900's. When workers jobs became less labor intense and more working with machinery. The scientific management movement began.

Models of HRM

Human resource management has frequently been described as a concept with two distinct forms: soft and hard. These are diametrically opposed along a number of dimensions, and they have been used by many commentators as devices to categorize approaches to managing people according to developmental-humanist or utilitarian-instrumentalist principles. The terms have gained some currency although, from a theoretical point of view, the underlying conflicts and tensions contained within the models have not been sufficiently explored and, from a practical perspective, available empirical evidence would suggest that neither model accurately represents what is happening within organizations. This leads us to question the value of these dimensions for defining normative forms ...