Does your company employ a personnel management (PM) or Human Resource Management (HRM) approach to managing people? If it employs an HRM Approach, would you describe it as “hard” or “soft”? If it uses a PM approach suggest ways in which it may ad Storey (1995, p 1) states that people are the most important asset to a business. If this is to be believed, choosing the right approach to managing people is critical to the success of an organisation. Today it is widely recognised that there are two ways to manage people, Traditional Personnel Management (PM) or Human Resource Management (HRM); however, in many organisations the Human Resource department itself is not clear as to the differences. To complicate matters further, HRM can range between two approaches, hard and soft, which must be differentiated between to define an organisations approach to the management of people. In this essay I will discuss the theories surrounding the differences between HRM and PM and the criteria that defines HRM as either hard or soft. I will then analyse The National Centre for Product Design and Development Research (XXX) to identify its approach towards the management of its people History The middle to late 1980 s saw the emergence of Human Resource management firstly in the US and then shortly afterward in the UK.
The Essay on Human Resource 3
1. One of the major components of any business is people. The management of people or human resource forms an integral part of any manager’s duty. This makes human resource management an important subject in today’s business scenario. Human resource management refers to the optimum utilization of manpower keeping in mind the focus of the concerned organization. Human resource management focuses on ...
This new style of management provoked mixed reaction from writers at the time, from to Torrington et al. (1991, p 3) who suggests that it may be seen by line managers as a way that senior management can push more responsibility onto them with little training or reward. This disparity could be due to the confusion of what differentiates HRM from PM. Discussion of literature Among writers on the subject of Personnel and Human Resource management there seems to be some uncertainty and inconsistency as to what classifies organisational behaviour as adopting a Personnel or Human Resource management approach to managing employees. There are several theories that suggest reasons for this disparity. Townley (1994) suggests that this is because there is a conflict between the “welfare tradition” of PM and the strategic goals of HRM and also that there is a gender gap between hard, (male) and soft (female) HRM.
However Legge (1995) theories that many of the differences occur because of the different models used to observe behaviour. She suggests there are four models that can be used to examine organisational behaviour. 1. Normative: What the organisation aspires to do with regards to personnel. 2.
Descriptive functional: An accurate and non-critical description of what the personnel department do. 3. Critical evaluation: A description of what the personnel department does with critical overtones 4. Descriptive behavioural: An accurate portrayal of the actions of the people within the personnel department. This study will focus on the normative model, as I believe that to some degree what an organisation aspires to do will, in one form or another, filter down to the behaviour of that organisation.
Differences between PM and HRM With so much written on the differences between HRM and PM there are many lists of criteria as to what characteristics are exhibited by organisations that adopt the different approaches to the management of people. For example Guest (1987) identifies seven “stereotypes” of Personnel and Human Resource management, whereas Storey (1992 b, P 35) suggests there are 27 key dimensions split between four categories i. e. Beliefs and aspirations, Strategic aspects, line management and Key levers. All of these criteria allude to three issues, which will define whether an organisation can be said to operate a PM or HRM.
The Term Paper on Human Resource Management And Personnel Management
The relationship between human resource management and personnel management has been arguing for many years. The strongest argument among all the advocates is whether human resource management is the same as personnel management only with another name or it is different concept. Some debates are as follow: Approval perspectiveCritical perspective Guest: its capacity to satisfy some key ...
Legge (1995, P 74) defines these issues as follows. The first is that Personnel Management “appears to be something performed on subordinates by managers” whereas HRM “not only emphasises the importance of employee development, but focuses particularly on the development of “the management team”.” Secondly, she suggests that with both HRM and PM approaches, the management of people is an important role of the line manager. PM focuses on the fact that line managers manage people, so personnel management is carried out almost by default. However, HRM treats line managers as business managers who are responsible for the allocation and application of the resources at their disposal for maximum commercial gain.
The last issue deals with who should manage organisational culture and implement organisational values. Normative PM models do not view Personnel Management and Organisational Development as integrated activities. Development of organisational culture is seen as a non-essential and something to be conducted when financial circumstances permit. The HRM model however sees the management of organisational culture, development and values as a key activity, to be conducted and championed by senior management.
In essence, in a normative HRM model, all employees, from senior management down, should engage in personal development that directly supports the business strategy. Line managers are responsible for managing their own resources in pursuit of organisational goals and the management of culture, development and values are the responsibility of senior management. This is opposed to a PM model where training is not always intentionally aimed towards strategic business development, line management tasks regarding personnel are routed through a specific personnel department and senior management does not take responsibility for the management of organisational culture, development and values. Hard and Soft HRM Having defined the principles on which a normative HRM model is based, it is necessary to differentiate between hard and soft HRM. Having accepted the three principles of what constitutes HRM it is possible to see how they can be applied with equal validity to completely opposite styles of management. Storey and Sisson (1993, p 17) classify hard HRM as management that sees employees purely as a resource that can be manipulated for maximum commercial gain.
The Research paper on Change Management Essay
‘Assumptions about the nature of managing and the nature of change outcomes are associated with different images of managing change’ This essay has been devised to offer discussion points to ultimately challenge ones perspective in regards to the notion of managing change as a coach. The essay attempts to introduce the concept of change management through the sphere of coaching. A comprehensive ...
Whereas soft HRM focuses more on an organisational culture where co-operation, communication and constructive supervision are encouraged to stimulate a productive working environment. There are many ways in which the culture of hard or soft HRM can manifest itself in an organisation. However the underlying principle is that in soft HRM employees are treated like adults and given the freedom to achieve organisational goals as they see fit without stringent rules and operating procedures. Obviously there have to be procedures in place to deal with under achievement, but with the right people in the right roles, the need to use them should rarely arise. Case Study The XXX (XXX) is one of the country’s leading centres in the field of product design and development research. It is based at the XXX and employs around forty staff experienced in the areas of product design and development, reverse engineering, rapid prototyping and rapid tooling.
The centre delivers a comprehensive range of expertise and services working in both long and short term partnerships with organisations to optimise their development processes, manufacturing processes (through the XXX) ) and their products. The centre also offers a range of tooling services and batch production of components as well as carrying out research into new applications for the technology it operates, such as medical engineering. In 1999 XXX was made a Centre of Excellence for Technology and Industrial Collaboration In Order to establish XXX’s approach to people management, I decided to interview the Director of Research & Enterprise who, together with the general director, manage XXX within the university. Mission statement strategic objectives key points. There is a central Personnel Department that deals with payroll and general administrative tasks including absence monitoring and record keeping etc. All these answers point toward XXX operating an HRM approach to managing personnel To categorise the type of HRM in operation at XXX the line managers from two different sections of the organisation were interviewed with a separate structure designed to focus on the style of management operated in that department.
The Essay on Restructuring The Public Works Department
What is your diagnosis of the situation in the Public Works Department? From the data collected through the OD consultant, diagnostic interviews, focus groups with employees and stakeholders the Public Works Department is facing serious issues. The department is lacking direction, communication, and budget control. From the data showed each department were doing their own thing instead of having ...
These departments were the research department, involved in the new applications for the technologies in use at XXX and the workshop, involved in the production of prototype tooling, batch production and rapid prototyping. The response from the managers of the research department was that they operate a soft HRM policy. This was evident in the fact that, due to the nature of work that is carried out, the working style is left very much up to the individual. There is the option to work from home, and there is very little control over break times and working hours. Again, due to the nature of the work, the allocation of work is on a long-term project basis, with regular meetings to monitor progress and advise on new avenues for investigation. These factors go toward making the research department a very relaxed and productive environment.
When the workshop manager was interviewed he was unsure as to what classification he thought his area of responsibility fell into as it operates policies that are indicative of both hard and soft HRM. For example a claxton system is used to rigidly determine the working hours and breaks, which would seem to indicate a hard approach to HRM. However there are also soft HRM principles in operation especially in the way that responsibility for project management is handed down. Work is allocated on a project basis with one employee being in charge of a project, responsible for delegating tasks to people with relevant specialist skills. This is closely monitored from a supervisory level, but this supervision is constructive and hence indicative of soft HRM. This delegation is designed to promote a culture of project ownership and responsibility among all levels of employees and is reflected in the quality of work produced..
