Human Resource Management Introduction – Part 1

Every organization has resources in terms of Men, Material, Money and Machinery. An organization aims at optimum utilization of these resources in order to succeed in the long run. Since optimum utilization of money, material and machinery depends upon the quality of people of the organization, therefore people are the most significant resource of an organization. In order to grow and survive in the long run an organization must employ the right people, with the right skills at the right place and time. The effort that an organization makes to hire the right people at the right place is known as human resource management.

Human resource management is the art of procuring, developing and maintaining competent workforce to achieve organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner. Its central focus lies on the following –

• Providing qualified, well-trained employees for the organization.
• Maximizing employee effectiveness in the organization.
• Satisfying individual employee needs through monetary compensation, benefits, opportunities to advance, and job satisfaction.

 

Concept – Employees are the most valuable assets of an organization, therefore there must be a constant and conscious effort to realize organizational goals by satisfying the needs and aspirations of employees.

According to Invancevich and Glueck,

“Human Resource Management is concerned with the most effective use of people to achieve organizational and individual goals”

 

Nature of Human Resource Management

• Pervasive force – It is present in all organizations at all levels of management.
• Future oriented- It provides competent and motivated employees to the organization to meet its future goals.
• Action Oriented- It focuses on needs, aspirations and problems of employees in a rational and flexible way rather than following strict procedures and guidelines.
• Individual oriented- It focuses on motivating and developing the employees to give their best to the organization through training and development programmes.
• People oriented- It tries to bring people with similar skills and interests together in order to form effective groups to increase productivity and produce better results.
• Development oriented – It aims to develop the full potential of employees through training and development programmes.
• Inter-disciplinary function- It borrows knowledge and inputs from other disciplines like economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology etc.
• Continuous function – Human Resource Management is a continuous activity as an organization`s manpower needs changes constantly adjusting to the changes its internal and external environment.
• Integrating Mechanism – It tries to integrate human resources working at various levels in an organization and tries to build and maintain cordial relations between them.

 

Objectives of Human Resource Management –

• To help achieve organizational goals by satisfying its manpower needs
• To provide competent and motivated employees to the organization
• To develop skills and abilities of the employees through training and development programmes
• To develop and Maintain healthy work climate and work quality
• To Satisfy the needs and aspirations of employees
• To Formulate HR policies and communicate them to all employees
• To ensure effective utilization of Human resources
• To provide equal employment opportunities and equal pay for equal work

 

Scope of Human Resource Management

HRM take account of all activities carried out by the employee during his/her entire working life. It starts from the Procurement of the employee until his/her separation from the organization. Therefore the scope of HRM lies in the following activities –

• Procurement – It includes –
• Determination of manpower requirements
• Job analysis
• Recruitment and selection of employees
• Placement of Employees
• Training and development of employees – It includes on the Job and off the job training of employees and various development programmes to develop the skills and abilities of employees.
• Job Analysis and Job Description – It involves study of Job requirements, assignment of tasks and duties and helps in delegation of authority and responsibility.
• Compensation Planning – It involves job evaluation and determination of salary, wages, perks etc.
• Incentive/reward planning – It involves performance appraisal and merit rating on the basis of which rewards and incentives provided to employees are decided.
• Maintaining Personnel Records – It includes – collecting bio-data of employees, maintaining payment records and performance records etc.
• Health and safety of Employees – It involves sanitary facilities, recreation facilities, safety programmes, good working conditions etc.
• Maintaining Human and Industrial Relations – It includes Collective bargaining, Dispute settlement, Grievance redressal etc.

 

Human Resource Management vs. Personnel Management

Personnel Management is concerned with people at work and relationships between them and the organization. It is a set of programmes, functions and activities designed to achieve both personnel and organizational goals.

Basis	HRM	Personnel Management
Approach	Modern	Traditional
Focus	Procurement, Development and Maintenance of Human resources	Personnel Administration, Labour Relations, Employee Welfare
Management Role	Transformational Leader	Transactional Leader
Communication	Direct	Indirect
Job Design	Team Work/ Groups	Division of Labour
Function	Administrative function is undertaken to achieve organizational goals	Personnel function is undertaken to achieve employee satisfaction
Type of Function	Strategic function	Routine Functions
Treatment of human resource	Considers employees as valuable asset of the organization	Considers labours as machines as tools that are replaceable
Basis of Pay	Performance Evaluation	Job Evaluation
Labour Management	Individual Contracts	Collective bargaining contracts
Decision Making	Fast	Slow
Initiatives	Integrated	Piecemeal
Management Action	Business needs	Procedures
Managerial Task	Nurturing	Monitoring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to Part 2