Human Resource Management (HRM)

Human Resources Management (HRM): Nature, Model & Variables in HRM What is HRM?
Traditionally, HRM is seen as the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns. It is involved all management decisions and practices that directly affect or influence the people or human resources, who work for the organization. OR HRM is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources for the purpose of contributing to organizational, individual and societal objectives. Human Resources Management (HRM) is concerned with the people dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to maintain their commitment to the organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. Getting and keeping good people is critical to the success if every organization, whether, profit or non-profit, public or private. Those organization that are able to acquire, develop, stimulate and keep outstanding workers will be both effective (able to achieve their goals) and efficient (Expanding the least amount if resources necessary). Those organizations that are ineffective or inefficient, risk the hazards if stagnating or going out if business. Survival of an organization requires competent managers and workers coordinating their efforts towards an ultimate goal. While successful coordination cannot guarantee success, organizations that are unsuccessful in getting such coordination from managers and workers will ultimately fail. However, in todays competitive environment, many organizations are discovering that the individual HRM practices could be combined that makes all the differences. Managers dont focus on staffing, training, and compensation practices in isolation from one another. These HRM practices are combined into an overall system to enhance employee involvement and performance. Therefore, Human Resource Management can be defined as a specific combination of HR practices, work structures, and processes that maximizes employee knowledge, skill, commitment, and flexibility. It composed of many interrelated parts that complement one another to reach the goals of an organization, large or small. It is seen as a set of techniques that claimed to embrace and promote new approaches to management of people and organization of work to enhance employee commitment and flexibility as well as their willingness to respond rapidly with the changing market conditions for providing competitive advantage to the organizations. The Nature of HRM The end of the Second World War, the world saw the rise of labor welfare as a specialization field. This was transformed into Personal Management when the theoreticians approach became concerned with micro level employer employee relations on a humanistic plane. Then studies concerned with structured collectivities and this took the form of Industrial relations. Industrial Relations then became a discrete function within the overall ambit of personal management. However, the original philosophical premise is that Personnel Management is a discrete function Industrial Relations which in turn is born out of the nature and content of the wider political economy. Hence, the treatment of Industrial Relations is attempted from the perspective of structuralist Positive Economics. Industrial Relations within this given paradigm carry the same connotation as HRM.

The days have gone when Personal Officers were retired army officers or civil service personnel who liked after latrines, crches and canteens, Today the HRM Manager has emerged as an executive who is important, if not more, than the Financial Controller, the Production Manager, the Material Manager or Maintenance Managers. His position in the years to come is going more become more important and so he has to have global vision with a keen foresight and aptitude so far as to influence and direct change. In view of the increased competitiveness, HRM would be more clearly seen as a conjunction of Business Policy towards capital and labor.

Components of HRM/ ISO Model/Social Model of HRM HRM(ISO)= f( m+v+a+b+q+t+s+e) Here ISO= International Organization for Standardization Series. f = function m= supportive management structure v=promote values a= promote attitudes b=promote behaviors q=set clear quality improvement goals t=encourage communication and team work s= recognize success and achievement e= train and educate employees for improvement Significance of HRM HRM is not a separate part of management rather a basic function of management permeating all levels and all types of management ----Pigors and Myers. Meeting economic competition and survival of the fittest Controlling labor cost and overall cost of production Valuable investment Keep pace with the technological development Increase in total employment and efficient workforce of the country Multinational operation becomes easier

HRM Process /Process Model of HRM

Human n Resources Planning Recruitment Selection Identification and selection of competent employees

Orientation

Training

Adapted and competent employees with up to date skills and knowledge

Performance Appraisal

Career development

Compensation and benefits

Competent and high-performing employees who are capable of sustaining this high performance over the long term

Measurement of Effectiveness of HRM Rate of absenteeism and labor turnover Rate of labor productivity Rate of labor dispute Rate of trained employees Rate of wastetivity.

The Variables of HRM Model There are three sets of influences which condition the form and content of Business Policy towards capital and labor as depicted in the following model: Model of an HRM System/System Model of HRM

Exogenous Ideological Influences *The State *The Market *The MNC

Endogenous Influences *Corporate ethics & culture *State ideology

Influences *Company History *Corporate Structure *Employee Collectivity

System Outputs Corporate Policy towards labor and capital *Efficiency *Effectiveness *Competitiveness Edge Quality of Work Life Readiness for Change

(The double pointed arrows devote the dialectic nature of the relationship between variables and obviate the need for installing a feedback loop to complete the system)

The first set of influences, which impinges on the HRM function, is the exogenous variables. The three major such variables are: 1. The State: State performs two kinds of roles (a) the ideological role fulfilled by such institutions as the family, the religion, and the social morals; (b)The role played by such bodies as armed forces, police and judicial. 2. The Product Market: If the organization does not register profits and fulfill its objectives functions the raison detre if all forms of line management will disappear; 3.The Multinational Corporation : The MNC is an economy within an economy and a living example of a micro-macro synthesis. With IMF conditionalities being the order of the day, with international finance capital directing the spate of economic development and with the metro pole imposing its structures (e.g. the Dunkel draft) on the satellites, the MNC is one variable one cannot afford to overlook.

The second set of variables could be described as endogenous influences: The major such factors are : (a) The company history: What kind of polices & practices have come down in the years accepted normal working practice; (b) The employee collectivity: These bodies symbolize a combination of members of the labor force to protect their position within the organization from exploitation by capitalist. (c) The organization structure: The kind of structure that an organization has may be outdated with changing function and technology: Horizontal and vertical integration of productive forces may compel the organizational structure to be altered and with this the human relationship will also change. The third set of variables are called ideological influences and they are causally linked dialectical by both the exogenous and endogenous influences, the three main factors under this categories are: (a) Corporate culture which is based on the company history, the vision of the helmsman and the ideology of the Board; (b) Corporate ethics which is based on the belief system as well as the manner in which managements and various view objective social reality. The interaction between corporate culture and corporate ethics is often so close that it appears that the concepts a have been fused together; (c) State ideology: As capitalism develops the form of the Labor Process itself is altered. In the above discussion it is observed that the ; State policy towards labor and capital is an exogenous influence whereas the motive and basis of these policies is an ideological influence, the three sets of variables mentioned above interact with each other and the result of the interaction of the Corporate Business Policy to : labor and capital. Four facets are relevant to the study of Industrial Relations which have developed into HRM ,such as ,power ,control, class relations and alienation. Their immediate manifestation could be visualized in the following terms: (a) Exercise of power to obtain the objective function, (b) Utilizing control mechanism to maximum the profit function in its various forms and characters; (c) Regulating class relations between owners of capital and the owners of labor power; and (d) The creation of an alienated labor forces, not only from the means of productions but also from the labor aristocracy that seeks to champion its interests.

American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) identified nine human resources areas: 1. Training & development 2. Organization and development 3. Job design 4. Human Resources Planning 5. Selection & Staffing 6. Personal Research and Information Systems 7. Compensation 8. Employees 9. Union / labor Relations. The end result of HRM id to achieve the objective function of the organization by managing the human factor effectively and efficiently.

Importance of quality and are involved in developing, implementing, and maintaining the quality system. The Standard says, Behavior and performance of individuals directly impact the quality of service. Management should ensure that people appreciate the importance of acceptable job performance at all levels and the detrimental effect of poo9r job performance on people, customer satisfaction, operating costs, and economic well being of the organization. Quality awareness can be promoted via b. c. d. Introductory and basic quality awareness programs for the employees. Regular refresher program for veterans. Motivation of employee to initiate corrective measures. Organization Development: Employees should perceive the scope, responsibility, and authority of the various functions and their impact on quality. Organization / Job Design: Management must define, interface, control, and coordinate amongst activities and clearly establish organizational structure for quality, with clearly defined lines of communication. Staffing: ISO strongly recommends that management assign responsibilities to specific individuals for the information system and quality improvement. It requires management to specify responsibility, authority, and interrelation of personal that manage, perform, and verify any work that affects quality. Therefore, management needs to identify and provide competent human resources. Standards of competency, experience, and training to ensure supply of capable personnel must be set. Motivation: To motivate employee the Standard advises management to inform about quality measurement, recognize successes, improve employee skills, and create a work environment that induces excellence.

e.

f.

Communication Skill: The standard recommends that effective communication should be fostered at all levels of management through briefing, information exchange meetings, and documents. It also states that personnel involved in service become well conversant with communication skills, work teams and other people oriented techniques.

It is evident from the above discussion that ISO not only strengthens the philosophy behind HRM but in addition identifies some major construct essential for maximizing the output level of HRM. These can be outlined as follows: a. Supportive Management Style (M): ISO recommends that the leaders should support subordinates in the pursuit of their goals. In addition they should help the subordinates to accomplish assigned duties. b. Promote Values (V): ISO helps in strengthening individuals basic convictions and helps them to identify as to what is right, good, or desirable. c. Promote Attitude (A): ISO helps evaluate statements concerning objects, or events. d. Promote Behavior (B): ISO helps in understanding people through understanding of individual behavior. e. Set Clear Quality Improvement Goals (Q): ISO seeks out an operation which provides customer satisfaction on a continual basis. This is to be achieved through s set of procedure which sets quality standards. f. Encourage Communication and Team Work (T): The concept of team work to nurture relationship both within and outside4 the organizatio9n con be achieved by following ISO recommendations. g. Recognize Success and Achievement (S): ISO ensures achievement of organizational goals through recognition of successes of an employee. h. Train and Educated for Improvement (E): Training is a learning experience which expands the knowledge base leading to higher level of education. ISO ensures education which in turn increase the ability of the individual to perform better.

3.

CONCLUSION Three important hypothetical models result from the agreement outlined above. The first involves HRM functions where we can see that in addition to the nine HRM areas identified, two more areas viz. motivation and communication skills need to be incorporated to achieve the success of HRM. The second addresses the features or attributes which represents the HRM related characteristics essential for success of ISO (ii). Therefore, we can say that HRM through ISO is a function of supportive Management (M), Values (V), Attitude (A), Behavior (B), Quality Improvement Goals (Q), Team Work (T), Success and Achievement (S), Training & Education (E).

This can be shown with the help of a simple mathematical model as depicted below: II = f (m+v+a+b+q+t+s+e) The third provides a basic positioning of HRM activities with respect to other functional areas. The first such model was developed by Baldrige (1993) as depicted in the following figure:

SENIOR

DRIVER

MANMGEMENT OF PROCESS QUALITY

CUSTOMAR FOCUS AND SATISFACTION

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

QUALITY STRATEGIC QUALITY PLANNING AND OPERATIONAL RESULTS

SYSTEM
INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS

Fig 2: Dynamic Relationship between HRM and Customers

The above model along with the conceptual undertaking presented in this article clearly indicates that for successful implementation of ISO the relationship shown below must exist. This relationship will give rise to the graphical model depicted in figures 3. Layer One Layer Two Layer Three : HRM Through ISO : Functional Areas : Customer

MACRO ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

MACRO ENVIO

FINANCE

M I S

C U S T O M E R

P
R O D U C T I O N

MARKETING

Fig: 3; Macro Model Summarizing the Effect of ISO in the Organizational Relationship