5.

STAFFING - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Introduction
In recent years, the term ‘human resource management’ has been adopted as an
alternative to ‘personnel management’. Many companies have retitled their personnel
departments and offered human resource services. Educational Intuitions and academics
have changed the curriculum and book titles to reflect the trend towards redefining this
management activity. Therefore, it is necessary to know the meaning of the term ‘human
resource management’. Which means differently to different persons. For some. HRM is
not simply a new form of jargon to describe personnel management with a different
value system; for others. It remains an elusive concept , elastic and ambiguous. The
analysis of different models would reveal a clear meaning of the term.

Definition
Many of the elements of HRM model are drawn from organizational behaviour theories,
such as leadership and team building. It may be helpful to consider them in terms of two
dimensions. The first is a ‘soft-hard’ dimension, depending on whether the emphasis is
primarily on human resource with its softer connotations of McGregor’s theory Y and
utilization of individual talents or on management with its implications of strategy and
quantification. The second is a ‘loose-tight’ dimension, depending on whether the
definition is general or precise. At the loose’ end, HRM is simply a retitling of the
personnel department. As old wine in new bottles, this may serve the useful function of
giving a somewhat jaded personnel department a new and more contemporary image. At
the ‘hard’ end, HRM considers human resource as just another resource to be taken into
account in business decisions. It emphasizes strategic human resource management and
considers how human resources fit into and are utilized in the organization.

Growth and Development

Personnel Management is the child of scientific management and the awakened sense of
social responsibility, evinced in the countries of the west at the end of the 19 th century.
The term personnel management’ was originated in America, but other terms in fashion
from time to time and still in use, can be taken as synonymous such as labour welfare,
industrial relations or human relations in industry. The actual title is of little significance
if the job being done is the same. In India, personnel management has been of
comparatively late growth, and has only developed on a wide scale since independence.
The jute industry in Bengal started to employ labour welfare officers before and after the
second World War. The appointment of welfare officers was made obligatory under the
Indian Factories Act, 1948 in factories employing at least 500 employees. The personnel
officers were appointed and personnel functions were identified and used during 1960s.
Since then Personnel Management has undergone considerable change and has expanded
to cover:
a) The human and social implications of work and organization.
b) Recruitment and selection of employees with their training, promotion and
development.
c) Relations between employer and employee and of management’s with trade
unions, internal communication and consultation.
d) Terms and conditions of employment including wage and salary.
 e) Health, safety, welfare and employee services.
The emergence of training aimed at development of knowledge, skill, attitudes including
purely vocational training has added another dimension to personnel management. The
1980s experienced the emergence of the concept of human resource management

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Management
Models of

Human Resource Management

THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Personnel ManagementPROCESS

Welfare Management

Organization Culture
1900 Strategy objectives
1940 1980 Environment

HR Strategy

Job Analysis Organization Performance

recruitment Structure Management

Training and
Development

Reward
Out put
management

Employee
relation
The theory is that polices of mutuality will elicit commitment which in turn will yield
both better economic performance and greater human development.

Similarities
1) Both the models emphasize the importance of integrating personnel/HRM
practices with organizational goals.
2) Both models rest personnel/HRM in line management.
3) Both models, in the majority of instances, emphasize the importance of
individuals fully developing their abilities for their own personal satisfaction and
to make their best contribution to organizational success.

Differences
1) The traditional concept of personnel management was based on a very narrow
view of human motivation. The basic assumption underlying that view was that
human beings are primarily motivated by comforts and salary, and necessary
attention may be given to rationalize these, so that people do not get dissatisfied.
The human resource management attaches more importance to people in the
organization. This is mainly because organization are realizing that human assets
are the most important assets they can have and their contribution to the
organization is much more than of any other resource being used. This emphasis
can partly be attributed also to the new emerging values of humanism and
humanization.
2) The management of people becomes a key, if not the key element in the strategic
planning of the business; and attempts are made to integrate polices both with one
anther and with business planning. By implication, a different time span is
involved; whereas personnel management might be said to deal with the short
term, HRM is concerned with the long term.
3) In most HRM models, top management is given prime responsibility for cultural
leadership. The purpose of culture is to provide employees with a commitment to
beliefs and values that are ‘large than ourselves’.
4) The role of line management is given a different emphasis in HR M: much greater
stress is placed on the line managers’ responsibility of co-ordinating and directing
all resources to generate commitment and enthuse subordinates to innovate. In
another words, HRM is too important for corporate success to be left to HR
specialists.
5) HRM emphasizes in theory, the importance of individual man growth and
developing the management ‘team’.

Conclusion
These five differences suggest that HRM is a proactive central strategic management
activity which is different from conventional personnel management with its implied
passive connotations. However, what may be of more significance is not the message,
but the messenger: that ‘human resource management by chief executives’. It is
legitimate to define HRM as a particular approach to the management of the
employment relationship with a distinctive set of HR polices and practices designed
to produce specific outcomes: to secure the greater commitment of employees and
promote synergy in order to increase organizational effectiveness.

WHAT IS HRD?

“People” is the most important and valuable resources every organization or

institution has in the form of its employees. Dynamic people can build dynamic
organizations. Effective employees can contribute to the effectiveness of the
organization. Competent and motivated people can make things happen and enable an
organization/institution to achieve its goals. Therefore, organizations should
continuously ensure that the dynamism, competency motivation and effectiveness of
the employees remain at high levels. HRD is thus a continuous process to ensure the
development of employee competencies, dynamism motivation and effectiveness in a
systematic and planned way.

MULTIPLE GOALS OF HRD

HRD has multiple goals. These include employee competency development,

employee motivation development and organizational climate development.

Employee require a variety of competencies(knowledge, attitudes, skills in

technical areas, managerial areas, behavioral and human relations areas and
conceptual areas) to perform different tasks or functions required by their jobs. The
nature of jobs is constantly changing due to changes in the environment, changes in
organizational priorities, goals and strategies, changes in the profiles of fellow
employees(Subordinates, bosses, colleagues etc) change in technology, new
challenges, new knowledge base etc. Such a change in the nature of jobs requires
continuous development of employee competencies to perform the job well. Thus
competency development is needed on a continuing basis for effective job
performance. HRD aims at constantly assessing the competency requirements of
different individuals to perform the jobs assigned to them, effectively and provide
opportunities for developing these competencies.

HRD also aims at preparing people for performing roles/jobs/tasks/function which

they may be required to perform in the future as they go up on the organizational
hierarchy or as the organization takes up new tasks through diversification,
expansion, modernization, economization etc. HRD tries to develop the potential of
employees for future likely jobs/roles in the organization.
Another aim of HRD is to identify competency gaps of employee to perform the
present roles/jobs/tasks/function effectively and create conditions to help employees
bridge these gaps through development.

In sum HRD goals include:

 Develop the individual to realize his potential as an individual to the
maximum extent.
 Develop the individual’s capabilities to perform his present job better.
  Develop the capabilities to handle future likely roles.
 Develop and maintain a high motivation level of the employees
 Strengthen superior-subordinate relations
 Strengthen team spirit among different teams.
 Promote inter-team collaboration and
 Promote climate development and organizational health development.
 Role clarity.
 Goals setting of accomplishments.
 Better utilization of manpower and attaining optimum productivity of
individuals.

Human Resource Development

HRD is organized learning provided by employers within a specified period of
time to bring about performance improvement and / or personal growth.
With in HRD there are three kinds of learning programmes, based on job focus;
training, education, and development. Training is the activity where the learning is
focused on the present job of the learner. Education is the activity where the learning is
focused on a learners’ future job. Development is the activity where the learning does not
focus on a job.

The role of HRD people?

They can be seen in three major roles: manager of HRD; learning specialist, and
consultant. The HRD manager is responsible for meeting goals with the available
resources. His other sub-roles include-supervisor of HRD programmes; development of
HRD personnel; arranger of facilities and funding and maintainer of interpersonal and
interdepartmental relations.

The other human resource areas?

They include human resource planning, research and career development.
At one time human resource planning consisted mainly of succession planning
and recruitment. But human resource planning goes far beyond that. This has been
highlighted by demographic change like the increasing number of older workers.
Previously, human resources research was mainly related to establishing wages,
but it has since expanded. Large firms like General Motors, At & T have a whole unit
devoted to human resources research. Small companies tend to use outside resources
when a research need arises, such as identifying the reasons for employee turnover or the
level of worker satisfaction.
Because it goes neyond just trying to find out what the next job is, career
development has become a separate unit in many companies. Career development and
HRD are related in many ways, but they require different competencies. The career
development scheme and the HRD system must be interactive.

Human resources be organized within a company?

There is no one best way to organize human resources and probably never will be.
Each organization will have to consider how to group these functions based on its own
needs. These groupings will also be influenced by the history of the company. For
example, if career development has been under human resource management, separating
those activities out may prove to be disruptive. The result might be a “power fight”.
Therefore, managers may decide to retain the existing organization of human resources
even if a change could mean an improvement.

As a manager, one is constantly called upon to solve problems and for some of
them HRD can be an appropriate response. Using HRD effectively can make the job
easier and contribute to success. This does not require that one knows enough about it to
be able to make the necessary managerial decisions.

Kind of decisions HRD implications?

Some of the decisions one makes may not seem to have HRD implications until
examined closely. Opening a new facility closing and old one; expanding or contracting
operations; venturing into new markets-all those involve people who will have to possess
the competencies to implement the decisions. If the work force is to be ready when
needed, involve the HRD people early enough so they can put the learning programme on
line promptly.

HRD helps as a manager

One wants people to be not only competent but working at their highest level of
excellence. There are many ways to reach for excellence in performance, and one of them
is to provide the appropriate learning at the optimum time. A good HRD programme can
give this management tool.

HRD do for the organization

HRD relates to so many areas. Among these are productivity; performance
appraisal; internal mobility; employee satisfaction; succession planning; and customer
service.

HRD assist individuals and their company in doing strategic planning

You will benefit by involving your HRD people during the strategic planning
process, because they can begin to plan for the HRD programmes that will help you reach
your strategic goals. Engaging in the process may mean that your people will need to
learn skills in working together in small groups in identifying problems and opportunities
and in featuring.

The organization is constantly changing;

There are several ways HRD can help in a changing environment and one of them
is to keep your work force in a constant state of learning readiness. Through HRD you
can help your people learn how to deal with the stress, strain and anxiety that come with
any change, There are several techniques which are helpful, both before and during a
transition.
 Some managers consider HRD to be “the kiss of death”. Being assigned as the
HRD manager may be construed as being shunted off to one side or to a position that
nobody really wants. But, given the increased concern about human resources, being
assigned to any human resource function can be an important part of a manager’s career
path

This can also be asked another way; what will it cost me if I do not provide HRD?
Your employees learn, but they may be learning the wrong things. By providing
organized learning programmes, you can reduce cost, improve quality, and provide the
work force you need.