An Overview of Human Resources Management 1

An Overview of Human Resources Management

Group 5: Mark Skonieczny, Peter Lopez, Joshua Larson, Hannah Bodine, Gus Psimoulis, and

Kevin Kramer

RST 410 Professor Lara Browning

9/25/2017
An Overview of Human Resources Management 2

Describe the Theory

Human resources management refers to a specific style of management that places as its

primary emphasis the employee as an individual, directing management to structure the work

organization to best make use of the talents and skills of each individual (Tubey, Rotich, and

Kurgat, 2015). The goal of human resources management is to direct the efforts of employees

towards pursuit of the employers strategic objectives. To do this, human resources management

focuses on the systems and policies relating to employees that exist within a given organization.

The theory of human resources management posits that by emphasizing the acquisition,

retention, and motivation of individual employees, employers can gain a variety of benefits

(Schuler and MacMillan, 1984).

Randall Schuler and Ian MacMillan, in their article Gaining Competitive Advantage

through Human Resource Management Practices, define the advantages gained from good

human resources management principles in terms of thrusts and targets. Thrusts increase

competitive advantage by either increasing productivity, or by differentiating one employer from

its competitors, increasing the ability to attract talented employees. Targets increase competitive

advantage by focusing on the management of human resources in four target areas: the

organization itself, the organizations customers, the organizations distributors and servicers,

and the organizations suppliers. So, the theory of human resources management focuses on

improving employee performance, talent acquisition, and retention both within the organization,

and within the organizations human resources environment (Schuler and MacMillan, 1984).

In practice, human resources management is primarily concerned with the policies of an

employer that relate to employees. This encompasses a broad swath of employer behaviors and

practices. Tubey, et al outline the four general areas in which human resources management
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principles focus that previous research by Beer, et al have composed. These four areas are

employee influence and involvement, human resource flow, reward systems, and work systems.

Employee influence and involvement refers to the input of employees in management

decisions. Human resource flow refers to the processes of attracting and retaining talent, and the

processes of maintaining a talented and capable workforce. Reward systems include both

traditional compensation as well as non-monetary reward systems that motivate employees.

Work systems refer to the design and function of the work environment for employees. These

four areas generally describe the actions taken in the pursuit of ideal human resources

management. Tubey, et al conclude that human resources management is complex, broad, and

discrete, encompassing every detail of the relationship between management and employees,

with the goal of producing the best possible outcomes derived from the skills and talents of

individual employees acting in pursuit of organizational objectives.

Why and How Does the Theory Relate to the Management of RST?

Due to the industry of recreation, sport, and tourism being a service industry, human

resource management is of high priority to managers. Each aspect of RST utilizes human

resource management in different ways.

While technology has become an important tool to the entire RST industry, it has become

very important to sport in particular. Most sport organizations utilize some social media platform

to engage with their patrons. Besides using technology to increase social capital, technology is

also very commonly used in the sport industry for recruiting and hiring. Managers in sport have

also used some online programs to give employee evaluations, which is an important aspect of

human resource management (Chelladurai, 1998).

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There are several ways that human resource management applies to recreation. The first

is cost-effectiveness. Recreation departments are known to have low funding compared other

industries. With that, recreation managers have to be strategic in managing their resources in

order to make the most out of what they are given. It is also necessary for human resource

managers in recreation to address social capital. Clients are human resources; in order to cater to

their needs, it is important for recreation managers to communicate with every possible

stakeholder (Chelladurai, 1998).

In the tourism industry, the hiring and placement processes are of high importance.

Quality of service is one of the main differentiating factors of various tourism organizations. As

a result, hiring the right employees that fit in with an organizations goals and mission is

essential to success and business. Once the correct employees are hired, it is important for the

organization to do their best to retain them. Turnover is very common in the tourism industry and

forces organizations to redo the hiring process (Popescu, 2013).

What Can Be Learned and Used From This Theory?

There has been a large amount of studies that show a positive correlation between human

resource management and performance within a company. When an organization has the right

people in the right place doing the right things, higher performance is likely. Human resources

management is the management of human capital. There are several major objectives that can be

learned from this theory. The first being cost-effectiveness. The finance and accounting

departments make most of the decisions when it involves the budget or expenses; however,

human resources policies play a major part in a businesss costs. In order to lure competent

workers to your company, it is important to have competitive prices so the best talent will want

to come work for you. There is a fine line between competitive pay rates and paying too much
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and costing the company a large sum of money. It is also important to hire the right people so it

will minimize the amount of turnover, therefore, it will reduce the amount of time and money

that is taken away from the company by an employee that leaves (Bradley, n.d.).

Leveraging potential is another major objective of the human resources management

theory. The main part of this objective is to make sure that an employee is not overwhelmed with

the amount of work that he or she has but it is also to make sure that there is enough work to do

so that the company is completing projects and not wasting time. This objective focuses on

neither over working nor under utilizing their employees.

Matching the needs of an employee is another objective of the human resource

management theory. Putting the right employee in the right place at the right time is going to

help an organization achieve their goals faster than if they have someone that would need

extensive training to complete a task. Having a staff that have diversified skillsets will allow

your organization to accomplish so much more than a staff that only thinks about things in one

way and is not branching out to explore other possibilities (Bradley, n.d.).

One of the last objectives for the human resources theory is maintaining good

relationships between stakeholders. Having positive and open interactions with potential clients,

owners, or employees is an important way to build trust and in turn will benefit all parties

involved. Clients want to do business with people that are open with them and are positively

communicating with them. Doing those things are a great way to expand your client base.

Business managers should be aware that meeting your employees needs and problems and that

will make the employee want to be the same way to the client. This objective basically says that
An Overview of Human Resources Management 6

treating people well inside of the organization will in turn make your employees treat people

outside of your company well.

What Other Interesting Things Should We Know About This Theory?

Another interesting aspect of human resource management is the legal requirements

involved in protecting employees and keeping the recruiting and hiring process fair. For

example, the Equal Pay Act, which requires there to be equal pay between men and women

working similar jobs. Organizations such as OSHA are also a big part of Human Resources.

They work to protect employees from physical harm or illness in the workplace. If an employee

were to be harmed in any way, temporarily or permanently, they provide rehabilitation services

to those employees.

What may be most interesting about this theory of management is the broad nature of the

theorys applications to the practical functions of an organization. For example, as the model of

human resource management discussed by Tubey et al. describes, human resource management

extends to the work systems of an organization. Work systems includes, for example, the

technology used in the office, the layout of the office, how the office is decorated, what the

policies of the organization are about meals, and all of the other tiny details that define the

interaction of the individual employee and the organization. The broad nature of this style of

management makes it especially interesting to study, as there are many case studies of businesses

making innovative strategic human resources decisions that drastically improve performance.
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References

Bradley, J. (n.d.). What Are the Major Objectives of Human Resources Theory? Retrieved

September 24, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/major-objectives-human-

resources-theory-61815.html

Chelladurai, P. (1998). Human Resource Management in Sport and Recreation 3rd Edition

(9781492535850): Packianathan Chelladurai, Shannon Kerwin: Books. Retrieved

September 20, 2017, from

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=109

427f3-0ca0-4f59-ab03-46460f7c33b7%40sessionmgr120&bdata=#AN=SPHS-

674822&db=sph

Heathfield, S. M. (2016, October 2). What Is Human Resource Management? Beyond Hiring and

Firing: What is HR Management? Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-

human-resource-management-1918143

Popescu, L., Iancu, A., Popescu, V., & Vasile, T. (2013, December). Human resource

management and the tourism and hospitality... Retrieved September 20, 2017, from

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Schuler, R. S., & MacMillan, I. C. (1984). Gaining Competitive Advantage through Human

Resource Management Practices. Human Resource Management, 23(3), 241-255.

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&K=12492832&S=R&D=bth&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqLM40dvuOLCmr0%2B

epq5SsKm4S7GWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGut1C3rLZNuePfgeyx44Hy7fEA

Tubey, R., Phd, Rotich, K. J., M.Phil, & Kurgat, A., Phd. (2015). History, Evolution and

Development of Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective. European

Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), 139-148. Retrieved from

http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/EJBM/article/view/21196/21540