Part1. CHPT 1.foundations of Human Resources MNGT

1
PART ONE
FOUNDATIONS
OF
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Chapter 01: Evolution of Human Resources Management...........…. 2
Chapter 02: The Environment of Organisations..............................…. 49
Chapter 03: Organisational Issues of Human Resources Management 76

Chapter 01: Evolution of Human Resources Management 2
CHAPTER ONE
EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RESOURCES

MANAGEMENT
1.00 Chapter Outline……………………………………….. 2
1.01 Learning Objectives.......................................................... 3

1.02 Introduction...................................................................... 4
1.03 Definition of Human Resources Management.................. 4
1.04 Human Resources or Personnel Management?................. 5
1.05 Development of Human Resources Management.............. 7
1.06 The Human Resources Management Profession?............ 11
1.7 The Status of HRM in Tanzania………………………… 15
1.8 Training and Career in Human Resources Management.. 17
1.09 Functions of Human Resources Management.................. 20
1.10 Functions of the Human Resources Manager................... 25
1.11 Organising the Human Resources Function..................... 27
1.12 Who Performs HR Functions?………………………….. 32
1.13 Place and Role of the Human Resources Department...... 32
1.14 Objectives of Human Resources Management................. 33
1.15 Challenges for HR Managers……………………………. 35
1.16 HRM in Future………………………………………….. 38
1.17 HRM in Practice………………………………………... 40
1.18 Progress Questions........................................................... 43
1.19 Notes and References....................................................... 45
1.01 Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
(1) Define human resources management.
(2) Differentiate human resources management from personnel management.
(3) Trace stages in the development of the field of human resources

management.
(4) Scientifically defend the professionalism of the field of the human

resources management occupation in your country.
(5) Discuss the design and operational tendencies which lead people to
underrate the professionalism of human resources management
practitioners in work organisations.
(6) Outline the core functions of human resources management.
(7) Explain the role of the human resources management function vis-à-vis
other managerial functions in the work organisation.
(8) List the functions which a human resources manager performs in the work
organisation.
(9) Discuss the alternative ways in which the human resources management
function can be organised in an organisation.
(10)Discuss the major objectives of human resources management in the

management of a work organisation.
(11)Discuss the major challenges which HRM pauses to the management of work
organisations.
1.02 Introduction
Human resources management or HRM as it is commonly abbreviated, is concerned with

the activities which are intended to facilitate the effective utilisation of people in the performance
of organisations. The human resources of an organisation are not only its most important
resources, they represent one of its largest investments. For example, the US government reports
show that approximately 73% of the US national income is used to compensate employees in
various organisations.1 But although developing countries do not maintain such statistics, the
picture is more or less similar.
Not many work organisations recognise the real investment they make annually in their
human resources mainly because, the accounting profession continues to offer excuses for not
evolving an elaborate accounting system of recording and reporting the value status of human
resources in the accounting system of work organisations. None-the-less, it remains a reality that
every work organisation makes substantial investments in its human resources in terms of
recruitment, training and development, compensation, motivation, and health and security. You
will remember that the organisation's human resources keep on appreciating and depreciating.
We maintain, that any time now the accounting professionals ought to work hard and come up
with approaches of taking care of the accounting for the most important resource to
organisational performance.
Human resources management is a modern terminology for what traditionally used to be

known as personnel management or personnel administration. We will differentiate personnel
management from human resources management shortly, but for purposes of this book, we will
use the term human resources management only. In this chapter, we will explore the
development of human resources management, discuss the professionalism of the human
resources management occupation, outline the functions of human resources management,
discuss the place and role of human resources management in the performance of work
organisations, and present the main objectives of this profession in work organisations today.
1.03 Definition of Human Resources Management
Human resources management can be defined as a managerial philosophy, policies,

procedures, and practices related to the effective management of people for purposes of
facilitating the achievement of results within an organisation.2 It can also be defined as the set of
management activities intended to influence the effective utilisation of human resources in the
performance of organisations.3
As an illustration, the Zambia Institute of Personnel Management defines the profession as:
“That part of management which is concerned with continual adoption of an

organisation structure appropriate to the objectives of the enterprise, ensuring the
availability of an adequate and suitable manpower, resources, affording employees
the opportunity for development, and creating an environment in which they can
participate in the efficient running of the enterprise, convinced that they have a
stake in that enterprise.4
You will note from the above three definitions that the main purpose of human resources
management is to ensure that people contribute their best towards their organisation's
performance. Please note also the emphasis on managing people appropriately, which is not only
essential to organisational effectiveness, but also accords human resources management a
scientific status and distinct branch of management. The distinction between human resources
management and personnel management in section 1.04 below, will enhance our understanding
of the concept of human resources management.
1.04 Human Resources or Personnel Management?
Very often people ask, "What is the difference between human resources management
and personnel management? Text books in this field also are equally confusingly titled:
Personnel Management5, Personnel Management and Human Resources6, instead of being nicely
titled, "Human Resources Management" which is not only the modern name for this field of
management, but which adequately represents the contents in these books. Are these similar
names of the subject and therefore interchangeable terms? We wish to answer these two
questions in this section.
Traditionally the functions of managing people in work organisations used to be known

as personnel management and involved largely three basic management functions namely:
recruitment, training, and compensation. These functions were performed basically as clerical
functions without much regard for their functional interrelationships with other managerial
functions or even their contribution towards the achievement of organisational objectives.7 In
this way, personnel management was not regarded a strategic management function. The author's
consulting experience in Tanzania between 1985 and 1995 revealed that in many Asian-owned
business organisations, personnel managers were managers in name only. They were just utilised
as important clerks and were not meaningfully involved in their organisations' management
decision making.8
In contrast, the functions of managing people in work organisations are nowadays known
as human resources management. Human resources management differs from personnel
management in the following major respects:
(1) HRM is a modern name of the occupation of managing people in places of work;
personnel management is an outdated name of the occupation. In the literature, the
profession of personnel management dates back to 1912, when the first professional
personnel association, the Boston Manager’s Association was founded in USA. Human
resources management as a distinct profession dates back in 1946 in USA, Germany, and
South Africa.
(2) Human resources management encompasses many more functions of managing people
than did personnel management. It encompasses seven core functions, namely: planning,
recruiting (which will encompass interviewing, selection, and placement), training and
development, performance evaluation, compensation, safety and health, and labour
relations. It includes also the non-core functions of career planning and development,
motivation, communication, disciplining, and human resources research, accounting, and
auditing.
(3) Human resources management is organised as a strategic management function, at par

with such functions as procurement, production, marketing, and finance due to the pivotal place
and role of human resources in the performance processes of the organisation.
The human resources department is an autonomous department with component

horizontal sections and hierarchical echelons with its head reporting to the chief executive officer
like the heads of other key departments. The human resources department is a co-ordinating,
consulting, and controlling expert department serving other departmental managers and all
employees in all matters involving the effective deployment of human resources in the
organisation.
In contrast, under personnel management, the personnel functions are organised as simple
clerical functions subordinated to a department such as accounting, office management, or
company secretary, and thus with limited autonomy and influence in the management of people
to effectively contribute to the performance of the organisation.
(4) Human resources management as practised in work organisations today, is consistent with the
systems idea.9 The systems approach of looking at the practice of human resources functions
recognises the dynamic interaction among the human resources management functions on the
one hand, and on the other hand, the dynamic interaction of human resources management
functions with the other management functions in the performance processes of the
organisation. As a consequence, human resources management functions are increasingly
being directed towards providing greater support to the achievement of the organisation's
objectives.10
Also in the same vein, the human resources body of knowledge can conveniently be
perceived as a system within the business administration supra system. The human resources
system is divisible into distinct and coherent areas of study, i.e. subsystems that obey the
principles of the systems thinking.11
(5) Human resources management is not simple and straightforward; it is a complex field. It
requires a rich understanding of the field of organisational behaviour and the skills to utilise it in
order to get the organisation's human resources to work towards desired standards of
organisational performance. It requires a good knowledge of organisational and environmental
diagnosis as a basis understanding the relationships among people’s roles and for making correct
and consistent decisions about people in a dynamic work environment.
(6) As a strategic management function, human resources management is proactive, while

personnel management is reactive.
1.05 Development of Human Resources Management
Human resources management is not new in any society. However, no one society in the
world can claim the right to be its sole originator, just as no society can deny knowledge about it.
The fact that in developing countries there are many books on human resources management
written by authors in the developed countries, particularly in the United States and the United
Kingdom should not be misconstrued as suggesting these countries to be the origin of the human
resources management profession. It is rather an indication that people in these parts of the
world are more motivated and have better facilities to write on human resources management
than we, in developing countries, do.
Human resources management is as old as the human race. It may correctly be traced to
the creation of mankind. When God contemplated the decision to create man in His own image,
in order to “let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”, He was in fact
planning for manpower and its duties, which today, we call human resources planning and job
design.12 When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, He was in
fact, staffing the world.13 And when God said to Adam “Of every tree of the garden you may
freely eat; but of the tree of the known edge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it you shall surely die”, God was issuing instructions and setting His expectations on
the behaviour of Adam and Eve. This is what modern managers do with new members of a work
organisation.14 Finally, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, God moved in to discipline the couple
by saying:
Because you …have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying ‘You
shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it
all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and
you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till
you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust
you shall return. Therefore the LORD God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to
till the ground from which he was taken.15
Also, in all ancient societies, some human resources management functions were known
to be performed whenever people came together for a common purpose such as a clan meeting, a
marriage ceremony, and a funeral in African societies. Such functions as the forecasting of the
number and type of participants, designing the role of each participant, assigning of
responsibilities for performing the relevant activities, rewarding the performers, supervision of
performance processes, maintenance of discipline and the right interpersonal relations during the
events are by definition, human resources management activities of today. These activities were
of course performed informally in those times. It is possible to assemble these experiences into
coherent scientific bodies of learnable knowledge, relevant to our social environments.
During the course of this century, however, the process of managing people in work
organisations has become formalised, specialised, and complex. As a result, an organised body
of knowledge concerning the processes of managing people has been accumulated and
documented by academicians and management practitioners. Let us in the following section
discuss the global historical stages through which the field of human resources management
evolved.
(1) The Guild System16
In the Middle Ages the guild system provided the beginning of initiatives to organise the
training of apprentices and the employment of workers who possessed some skills. Craftsmen
were able to organise and exercise control over their respective trades through their guilds.
People sharing the same skills such as masons, carpenters, and ironsmiths, set up small
business organisations either as individuals or in co-operation. Production usually took place in
small workshops in homes, by using primitive tools and simple methods of production. Very
few products could be produced at a time and they were expensive due to high unit costs. Such
production processes were able to create very few jobs for society. The guilds were the parents
of today's advanced work organisations.
(2) The Factory System
During the nineteenth century, the discovery of mechanical power facilitated the
development of the factory system of production. The invention of power-driven equipment and
improved methods of production enabled products to be manufactured in greater quantities, and
therefore more cheaply than in the small homes of the guild system. This process created many
jobs, though the jobs were monotonous, unmeaningful, and hazardous as they were performed in
unhealthy working environments.
The concentration of employees in factories helped to call public attention upon their
poor employment conditions. It also helped employees to organise themselves into pressure
groups and act collectively to demand better working conditions. As a result, in some western
countries, governments passed laws to regulate such aspects as hours of work, minimum wages,
and employee safety. These efforts paved way for the provision of indemnity payments for
injuries sustained in industrial accidents. The employees’ demands for improved working
conditions coupled with the enabling legal environment led to intensified efforts of organising
labour and collective bargaining.
(3) The Mass Production System

The development of the factory system facilitated the designing of standard change parts
that could be used in assembly-line production. The development of standard change parts,
labour saving machines and equipment, together with improvements in production techniques
made it possible for products to be mass-produced. The increase in scales of production
however, resulted into increased overhead costs and higher wage bills which forced work
organisations to start looking for ways of making a more efficient utilisation of their production
facilities and human resources. To these efforts, various movements, research studies, and
scientific fields made valuable contributions. The most notable of these are discussed below:
(a) Scientific Management
The method of scientific management, which involved an objective and systematic

approach of improving worker efficiency basing upon the collection and analysis of data, evolved
from the work of Frederick W. Taylor and his contemporaries i.e. Henry Gantt, Harry Kopf,
Frank Gilbreth, Lillian Gilbreth and Harrington Emerson.17 Taylor believed that work could be
systematically studied and analysed by using the same scientific methods and procedures used by
researchers in a laboratory. In Taylor's own words, scientific management constituted a
"substitution of exact scientific investigation and knowledge for the old individual judgement or
opinion, either of the workman or the boss, in all matters relating to the work done in the
establishment."18
Taylor maintained that accurate performance standards, based upon objective data should
provide a basis for making financial rewards to superior employees and for eliminating
unproductive employees. According to Taylor, scientific management was the best tool for
increasing profits to employers, for lowering prices to customers, and for increasing employees’
productivity and remuneration in work organisations. Taylor’s movement came into sharp
contrast with the employers’ practice of extracting more work from their employees through
threatening to fire them. In any case, the views of scientific management differ sharply with
today’s motivational and behavioural theories, which maintain that employees seek from their
work, not only financial but psychological rewards as well.
Taylor's scientific management approach had two useful contributions it made to modern
organisational theory. First, he recommended that employees should be carefully selected and
trained for their jobs, and they must be helped to specialise so that in Taylor's own words, they
become "first class" at least in some task. Second, Taylor believed that increasing employee
salaries would increase their motivation and make them more productive. However, Taylor
ought to be credited for evolving the ideas of first, careful employee selection, training and task
specialisation; and secondly for laying the foundations of employee motivation as a function of
higher performance.19 This credit is in addition to scientific management being the roots of the
human relations movement, which we cherish today.
(b) Industrial Psychology
In the early 1900s some knowledge gained from researches from the field of psychology
was beginning to be applied to the management of human resources. One of the famous pioneers
in the field of industrial psychology was Hugo Munsterberg. In his book, Psychology and
Industrial Efficiency, Munsterberg pointed out the contributions that psychology could render to
human resources management in areas such as training, employment testing, and efficiency
improvement.20
The other psychologists who, following Munsterberg’s lead made valuable contributions
to human resources management, included W.D. Scott for evolving a system of rating sales
personnel and for his reputable book in personnel management.21 Another pioneer under this
group, J. McKeen Cattell will be remembered for his test-development activities and his
leadership in establishing the Psychological Corporation in 1921, which still provides various
human resources services up to today. Another pioneer Walter Van Dyke Bingham, will be
remembered for writing several books in employment interviewing and aptitude testing.22
(c) The Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne Studies which were conducted at Hawthorne's Western Electric plant in
1921 - 1932 under the leadership of two Harvard professors, Mayo and Roethlisberger made
another remarkable contribution to modern human resources management. They attempted to
determine the effect of hours of work, periods of rest, and lighting upon employee fatigue and
productivity. They also revealed the influence of informal work groups upon the productivity of
employees and upon their response to financial incentives.
These studies were conducted by Mayo, Roethlisberger, and Dickson and proved that
scientific management alone could not yield the desired results unless it was balanced with
considerations of human needs. They discovered that changes in the objective working
conditions such as the psychological and social conditions, and business climate, led to increased
levels of performance. The Hawthorne studies are recorded to have pioneered the endeavours,
which culminated into the field which, is today called behavioural sciences. However, the
depression and World War II diverted the attention of industry to the more burning issues of
organisational and national survival.
(d) The Human Relations Movement
The human relations movement provided new insights concerning human behaviour in
work organisations. This movement focused its attention on individual differences among
employees as well as on the influence informal work groups can have upon the productivity and
behaviour of employees. The movement emphasised the need for managers to use improved
communication and be more sensitive to employee behaviour. It also emphasised the need for
managers to use more participative and employee-centred supervision styles.
(e) The Behavioural Sciences
As the human relations movement developed, the understanding of human behaviour

became increasingly important. Disciplines such as economics, political science, psychology,
sociology, anthropology and education made valuable contributions towards the understanding of
human behaviour. The interrelationships among these disciplines became more widely
recognised, such that they are today popularly referred to as the behavioural sciences.
The behavioural sciences recognise the promotion of employee efficiency, and reject the
use of insincere and manipulative tactics in the employer-employee relations.
The major contribution of the behavioural sciences to human resources management is

their application to the field of Organisational Behaviour. The focus of Organisational
Behaviour is on the interrelationships involving organisations, individuals, and groups and their
impact upon employee behaviour in the performance processes of work organisations.
Further efforts to establish an organisational environment, which can achieve the benefits
of group work among employees, led to the growth of organisational development. The main
focus of organisational development is to cause changes in the attitudes, values, and behaviour of
individuals and the organisational environment in which they work. Organisational development
seeks to increase trust in the employee-management relationship, enhance employee participation
and productivity, and reduce the effects of destructive conflicts in work organisations.
(f) Development of High Technology
The last three decades have witnessed great technological advancements in the world of
work. The invention of semiconductors has enabled a tremendous reduction in the size of, but
increase in the efficiency of machines and equipment, which make life easier for the employee
and society. Examples of such technological advancements include computers, facsimile
machines, television, video, and the mobile telephone.
Computers have increased the capacity of storing, processing, and retrieving huge
amounts of information while drastically reducing conventional storage room for information,
and in that way greatly improved the accuracy of decision making. While the other inventions
have greatly facilitated communication, in totality the inventions have greatly made work easier
for the employee by eliminating manual operations. Contrary to the fears of many people in the
beginning that the technological explosion would cause loss of jobs, they have in fact created an
increased number of more challenging jobs.
1.06 The Human Resources Management Profession?
Debate continues in many countries in the world today, whether human resources
management qualifies to be regarded a profession or not. By taking part in this useful debate, we
should not be misinterpreted as co-operating with those who question the important role of
human resources management in organisations and society. We should certainly be the last
persons to do so.
So that we may be able to take a position with regard to the debate of whether in our own
countries, human resources management is a profession or not, let us ask ourselves two basic
questions. What is a profession? What universal characteristics should an occupation possess in

order to qualify for the status of a profession? From the answers to these questions, we should be
in a position to determine whether the human resources function in our work organisation and
generally in our country is a profession or not.
HRM as a formally recognised functional area in management is a fairly new discipline.

Whereas the first professional personnel association, the Boston Manager’s Association was
founded in USA in 1912, HRM can be said to have been first formally recognised in 1946. This
is the year, when the School of Industrial and Labour Relations at the University of Cornell, USA
awarded the first diploma in personnel management. Similarly, in Europe, the University of
Stuttgart in Germany began to offer HRM as a course in 1946. In South Africa the Institute of
Personnel Management of Southern Africa IPM (SA) was founded in 1946 as a professional
body for human resources managers.23 The Institute of Personnel Management of Southern
Africa, is still going strong, and is regarded today as the strongest HRM professional institute in
eastern and southern Africa.
What then is a profession? A profession may be defined as a type of job that requires
specialised training and that brings a fairly high status to the holder, for example work connected
with medicine, law, or education.24 In order for an occupation to qualify to be regarded as a
profession, it must demonstrate at least the following basic characteristics.25
(1) Skills must be acquirable through specialised training and education.
(2) The integrity of the profession must be maintained by the adherence of its members to a
common and binding code of ethics. Please see in Fig. 1-01 the code of ethics of the American
Society of Personnel Administration (ASPA) for example. Also, the South African Board for
Personnel Practice states its mission as to establish, conduct, and maintain a high standard of
professionalism and ethical behaviour in personnel practice.26
(3) Members must demonstrate competence by passing prescribed examinations. They

should not base their competence on mere experience and rosy letters of reference from former
employers. Practitioners must thoroughly understand the day-to-day problems brought to them,
and must undertake whatever study and research are required to assure continuing competence
and the best of professional attention.
(4) The services rendered by the occupation must be for the good of the public, and the
practitioner must uphold the obligation to implement public objectives and protect public
interests as more important than blind loyalty to an employer's preferences. In terms of this
characteristic, stealing cannot be a profession. Please see in table 1-2 the objectives of the
Zambia Institute of Personnel Management for example.
(5) The occupation should be organisable into a systematic body of knowledge in which
people can follow specified programmes of training and areas of specialisation.
(6) The practitioners must maintain a high standard of personal honesty and integrity in every
phase of daily practice.
(7) The practitioners must give thoughtful considerations to the personal interests, welfare,
and dignity of all employees who are affected by his or her prescriptions, recommendations, and
actions.
The foregoing characteristics are adequately demonstrated by such occupations as

medicine, accountancy, law, and engineering in many African countries. Other occupations for
instance nurses, social workers, and teachers demonstrate just a few of the above characteristics
and are for this reason referred to as semi-professionals or even worse, quasi-professionals.27
In many African countries the human resources management occupation possesses the
above-listed characteristics and therefore qualifies to be regarded as a profession. In these
countries human resources management practitioners have formed professional associations,
which have drawn professional codes of ethics and organised seminars, workshops, and
symposia, to facilitate the development and exchange of knowledge in the field for their
members.28 In addition to these structures, human resources practitioners in these countries are
recognised and treated as professionals by their employers and they conduct themselves in a
manner, which earns them professional respect from the employees and the public.
In other countries, however, the human resources management occupation does not
possess enough of the above-listed characteristics. For instance, in these countries the
occupation lacks characteristics numbers (2), (3), and (5). Again, even in countries which have
formed professional associations, these associations are not sufficiently active: they do not
organise sufficient fora for the professional development of their members; they do not have a
code of ethics in place, and have not muscled up into pressure groups to their governments and
employing sector to claim professional rights and privileges for their members; neither have they
engineered the establishment of human resources training programmes in local training
institutions. In these countries, it is obvious the occupation cannot claim the status of a
profession and, surely human resources practitioners must work harder to build this field into a
profession.
From our foregoing presentation, it is correct to conclude that the human resources
management occupation can comfortably claim professional status globally, because going by the
universal characteristics, it qualifies. But whether the human resources management occupation
can be regarded a profession in an individual country should depend on merit analysis by using
the above-outlined frame.
In some countries human resources practitioners have not formed a professional

association to regulate and promote the interests of the human resources occupation. Such a
body would administer a code of ethics to control and regulate the professional conduct of human
resources practitioners, and organise professional fora where human resources practitioners can
discuss issues of common interest in the advancement of the human resources profession. 29 A
professional body for human resources practitioners would engineer the enactment of legal
instruments that regulate the treatment of human resources practitioners by employers.
For purposes of illustration, let us take a look at the code of ethics of the American
Society for Personnel Administration in Fig.1-01.
___________________________________________________________
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION

CODE OF ETHICS
Each member of the American Society for Personnel Administration shall

acknowledge his or her personal responsibility to strive for growth in the field of human
resources management, and will pledge to carry out the following Society objectives, to the best
of his or her ability.
(1) Support the goals and objectives of the Society in order to reflect the highest
standards of the human resource management profession.
(2) Support the personal and professional development programmes of the Society in
Personnel Administration and Industrial Relations to help create an environment of recognition
and support of human values in workplace.
(3) Support the self-enforcement provisions in the codes of other associations to

achieve the overall goal of development of each person to his/her full human potential.
(4) Display a unity of spirit and cohesiveness of purpose in bringing fair and equitable
treatment of all people to the forefront of employers' thought; transmit that cohesiveness to
academia by actively co-operating to instil the PAIR ethic into the curricula of accredited
institutions.
(5) Practice respect and regard for each other as a paramount personal commitment to
a lifestyle exemplary in its motivation toward making business profitable in both human and
monetary values.
(6) Express in the workplace through corporate codes the basic rules governing moral
conduct of the members of the organisation in order to provide employees and the public with a
sense of confidence about the conduct and intentions of management.
(7) Personally refrain from using their official positions (regular or volunteer) to
secure special privilege, gain or benefit for themselves, their employers or the Society.
__________________________________________________________
Fig. 1-01: Code of Ethics of the American Society for Personnel Administration (ASPA)
1.07 The Status of HRM in Tanzania
The debate on whether in Tanzania human resources management is a profession or not is

justified by the following tendencies in our work organisations. These are the tendencies, which
cause people to ask whether really human resources management is a profession or not. You will
note from our presentation below, that these tendencies refer either to how the human resources
functions are designed in our organisations, how our work organisations treat human resources
functions or simply how human resources practitioners allow themselves to be treated. Whatever
the case, these tendencies appear to succeed to underrate the professionalism of the human
resources occupation. Let us now proceed to discuss the tendencies.
(1) Pairing of human resources functions with administrative support services.
In many organisations, administrative support services are lumped together with human
resources functions in one department called the human resources and administration department,
personnel and administration department, or simply, administration department. But what are
these administrative support services, and how related are they to human resources management
such that designers tend to pair them with human resources functions?
In an organisation such as a university, the administrative support services include a very

wide range of support services. They include such services as responsibility for such services as
servicing meetings and official parties, cutting grass in lawns, sweeping the compound, disposal
of refuse, cleaning of toilets and offices, tea and coffee-making and provision, canteen services,
transport services, and any flimsy services that cannot neatly be allocated to any specialised
department. All these services are dumped together with human resources functions in a
department known as the Registrar's Office or Deputy Vice Chancellor’s Office, or Chief
Administrative Officer’s Office.30 Yet universities have the most complex concentrations of
qualified personnel any organisation in any country can have.
Apart from the facts that the providers and consumers of these services are human beings,
there is no technical congruence between administrative support services and human resources
functions that can justify the positioning of these services under human resources management.
Moreover, in some organisations such as universities, government ministries, and large business
organisations, the volume and monetary value of such administrative services per annum justifies
the possibility of organising them under an autonomous department for efficiency and control, a
measure that would achieve the treatment of administrative support services and human
resources functions each by a separate and specialised department.
The tendency of pairing administrative support services with human resources functions
tends to make the human resources department a junk of pile of heterogeneous services, which
are spared of other professional departments.
(2) Absence of an autonomous department for human resources functions.
In some organisations, the human resources functions are deliberately organised not as an
autonomous department, but as a component section in a department such as Office
Management, Accounting, Administrative Services, or even Company Secretary. Under these
circumstances, a person should be pardoned if he interprets human resources management to be a
component part of the accounting profession if the human resources functions are designed as a
section under the accounting department.
(3) Department is given limited status and role.
In some organisations, the human resources manager has a big title but he or she is given
little recognition by top management. In this way, the human resources manager is used to
merely implement predetermined management decisions and processes of a clerical nature, such
as processing of leave and recruitment documents. In such work organisations, the human
resources manager is not incorporated in key organisational planning and decision making
processes.
(4) Tendency to recruit officers of irrelevant and questionable qualifications.
There are many organisations in Tanzania and Zambia which recruit graduates in law,
teaching, economics, sociology, psychology, political science, public administration, insurance,
and even mathematics as human resources managers. Some organisations even go for high
school generalists, "..........with credit in English. A certificate in personnel management will be
an added advantage." For staff in the human resources department, such organisations have yet
to learn from hard lessons, that human resources management is a distinct field of specialisation
that lawyers, teachers, economists, sociologists, psychologists, politicians and mathematicians
cannot automatically master!
(5) In some work organisations, the human resources department is used as a dumping
ground for officers who fail in other departments. So, if a sales manager or a purchasing officer
proves a poor performer in his or her department, they are transferred to the human resources
department, if the organisation does not want to terminate their services. Torrington and Hall
describing the incident of an effective detective Harry Callaghan, who because of shooting
slightly too many criminals had become a political embarrassment was called by the Chief of
Police and told the news that he had been transferred to the human resources department note as
follows:
Harry ... left the room slamming the door with sufficient
vigour to splinter the woodwork ... did not explain further, but we
can interpret his view as being the common one that personnel
work is not for the people who can and do, but for the people who
can’t and don’t. It is regarded as the easy option for those who
shirk the hard, competitive world of marketing, the precision of
finance, or the long hours and hard knocks of manufacturing. It is
soft, ineffectual and unimportant.31
(6) In some work organisations, the calibre of people who get promoted or transferred to the
human resources department leads observers to question the occupation’s professional status. In
some organisations, personal secretaries, security guards, purchasing clerks who have worked for
many years and have hit the ceilings of their career ladders get transferred to the human resources
department in order to open up their ladders. In no cases are such people transferred to the
accounting department, audit, legal, or engineering department.
(7) Absence of a professional body for the regulation and advancement of human resources
management.
In conclusion, HRM is an occupation, whose professional contribution is direly required

in Tanzania’s efforts of economic rehabilitation. Unfortunately HRM still occupies clerical
status. It is still poorly understood both to Tanzanian employers and employees. In this position
none of its stakeholders make full use of its valuable contribution. After the fall of the Ujamaa
experiment in 1985, the Tanzanian society is openly speaking of increased efficiency,
effectiveness, awareness of employee rights and responsibility in the workplace, better
management of work organisations, increased motivation, better remuneration schemes, better
planning of human resources acquisition and utilisation, etc. These objectives will be difficult to
achieve without a more professional human resources management function. Tanzania will have
to learn from the experiences of such professionalised occupations as the legal profession,
accounting and auditing, teaching, and engineering, as they strive to professionalise HRM.
The occupations listed above adopted a legal approach to their pursuing their status with
separate acts of parliament protecting the professional integrity of their occupations. The legal
approach is not the only alternative. An occupation can take a voluntary approach to pursuing its
professional status. The voluntary approach requires a pressure group of committed
practitioners, who publicise and lobby practitioners and employers. Eventually, which approach
to be adopted, will be up to HRM practitioners to decide.
1.08 Training and Career in Human Resources Management
During the colonial era and during the first ten years after independence, human resources
managers in Tanzanian work organisations did not have to demonstrate accredited professional
competence to get a job in the human resources department.32 They simply needed to be
academicians in any field of study usually law, but also mathematics, political science,
economics and even teacher education, with some experience in administration and strong letters
of recommendation from previous employers.33 By interpretation, work organisations in
Tanzania did not regard human resources management a distinct profession, which could be
earned through specialised training, programmes.
(1) Training in Human Resources Management
Today, there exist many programmes of training in human resources management at

certificate, ordinary diploma, advanced diploma, first degree, and advanced degree levels in
various institutions in Tanzania and many other countries in the world.34 Currently in Tanzania,
certificate, ordinary diploma, advanced diploma courses are available at the Institute of
Development Management Mzumbe in Morogoro, the College of Business Education in Dar es
Salaam and Dodoma, and other private training institutions located in the big cities and towns.
In addition, students have opportunities to specialise in human resources management at first and
second degree levels at the Institute of development Management Mzumbe, University of Dar Es
Salaam, Open University of Tanzania, Tumaini University College, Iringa, St. Augustine
University College, Nyegezi, International Medical and Technical University, Dar es Salaam, as
well as other private universities located in various towns and cities in Tanzania. In addition to
academic training opportunities, there exist in many countries professional associations that
conduct distant training and professional examinations for human resources specialists at various
levels i.e. technician, professional and senior professional levels.35 The oldest and by far the
strongest professional Association in Africa is the Institute of Personnel Management of
Southern Africa, which was founded in 1946.
It must be clarified however, that the academic training in human resources management
referred to in the foregoing paragraph, is in each case normally a general programme in business
administration plus a core course in human resources management, and a couple of electives e.g.
human resources planning, labour law, and labour relations towards the end of the programme.
In many of the above-named training institutions, human resources management courses are still
being taught by graduates in general business administration, and law. The essence of the above
remarks is to place the reader in the context that human resources management is still given as
general a treatment in the training institutions as it is in the work organisations.36
However, opportunities are in sight for training institutions to offer heavier and better
taught programmes in human resources management with increased control of what is taught by
human resources professional associations. In addition it is hoped that as the professional
associations grow they will be able to gather human resources practitioners to form a strong force
with the capability of laying an attractive environment that attract people to seek professional
status in human resources occupations. It is hoped that such professional associations will
establish professional training programmes which people can then aspire for after the academic
programmes discussed in the foregoing paragraph.
(2) Career in Human Resources Management

This section is intended for persons who have interest in or for other reasons seek to
understand closely, the career opportunities available in the field of human resources
management. It will enrich those interested in taking up career opportunities in human resources
management with knowledge of the available opportunities and how to prepare for them plus an
appreciation of the environment in which human resources management jobs operate.
We will throughout this book consistently state that human resources management jobs
are staff roles in organisational performance. In terms of Mintzberg’s model of classifying
human resources in organisations, which we use in this book, human resources jobs are expert or
technocrat jobs whose primary role is to design programmes which facilitate the proper
management of human resources so that they may contribute their best and most to organisational
performance.37 In this position, the human resources professionals often find themselves in the
roles of experts, consultants, co-ordinators, controllers, trainers, and links between managers and
employees, management and unions, as well as the government and the work organisation.
The human resources manager is the expert in the proper management of people though
the people themselves cannot conceivably all be placed in the human resources department, by
the nature of organisational design. This complication notwithstanding, the human resources
department still has to maintain consistency and fairness in the implementation of the human
resources programmes throughout the work organisation.
(a) Types of human resources jobs
In our discussion of the functions of human resources management in the following

section, we will make an implication of the following jobs. All these are staff jobs and are
typically found in large work organisations with fully-grown up human resources departments.
In smaller organisations there are fewer jobs in the human resources department though this
should not imply that the full range of human resources services are not being provided. It
actually means that staff employees in the department of a small firm are asked to be responsible
for performing a wider variety of functions than their colleagues in large work organisations
perform. In Fig. 1-02 we present a list of jobs normally found in the human resources
department, indicating against each job the number of the chapter in this book where the role of
the job has been discussed in detail.
Job Title Chapter

Systems analyst three
Procedures analyst three & twenty-one
Job analyst four
HR planning officer five
Registry clerks five
HR recruitment officer six
HR orientation & placement officer seven
HR training officer eight & nine
Career development officer nine
Compensation officer fourteen

Employees welfare officer fifteen, & eleven
Health officer fifteen
Health and safety inspector fifteen
Safety/Security officer fifteen
Welfare officer fifteen
Counselling officer fifteen
Labour relations officer sixteen, seventeen & eighteen
Legal officer sixteen, seventeen, nineteen
HR research officer twenty
HR audit officer twenty
HR Manager/Director all chapters
Fig.1-02: Types of human resources jobs38
Readers will note that the list excludes jobs for administrative services, which although
popularly placed under human resources departments in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia
are strictly speaking, not human resources jobs. We take the position throughout this book that
administrative services are not human resources jobs. The placement of administrative services
jobs under the human resources department even in work organisations which should separate
the two into autonomous departments is a misleading design tradition in our countries. This
tradition needs to be reviewed because it has been used to undermine the professional status of
human resources occupations in these countries.39
(b) Working conditions
Most work organisations accept the reality that human resources departments have
interactions with new employees as well as officers from government and labour unions. For this
reason they locate their human resources departments conspicuously and maintain them as neat
and well-furnished offices. For the same reason, they also require human resources department
staff to be neatly dressed and pleasant. Most of the employees in the human resources
department usually work a standard forty-hour week or longer particularly those on labour
relations tasks when strikes are on, plus meetings for preparation and negotiation of labour
agreements, disciplinary procedure meetings, workers council meetings and staff welfare
functions.
Most human resources management specialists spend their time in the office, but some of
them e.g. recruitment officers, labour relations officers, career development officers, regularly
travel on duty linking other organisations to their work organisation. In companies which have
branches and or divisions many human resources specialists are expected to travel very often in
order to co-ordinate, audit, and run meetings to strengthen human resources programmes in the
organisation’s branches or divisions.
1.09 Functions of Human Resources Management
In this section, we shall present briefly the core and non-core functions of human
resources management. Under the core, we mention seven core functions namely: planning,
recruiting, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation, safety and health,
and labour relations. Under the non-core functions, we outline career planning, motivation,
communication, disciplining, maintenance of quality of working life, and human resources
accounting, research, and auditing. In each case, we make indicative reference to chapters of this
book where the functions have been discussed in detail. It must be admitted however, that there
exist no scientific criteria in the literature so far to guide the distinction of core from non-core
programmes. The approach taken throughout this text is thus purely the author’s preference.
(1) Human Resources Planning
Human resources planning will be defined as the process of anticipating and making
provision for three types of movements of people in work organisations:
(a) Into the organisation
This task involves a realistic determination of the numbers and quality of employees
needed to fill the available job positions in the organisation.
(b) Within the organisation
This task involves the anticipation of the placement, transferring, promoting, and
demoting of employees in order to match their performance capabilities with the organisation's
performance demands, at all times.
(c) Out of the organisation
This task involves the anticipation of programmes that enable employees to move
systematically from their current employment life in the organisation to their post-employment
life.
We will discuss the human resources planning function in detail in chapter five.
(2) Human Resources Recruitment
Human resources recruitment or human resources procurement can be defined as the

process of identifying and encouraging potential applicants to apply for vacant job positions in
the organisation. The function involves the tasks of job advertising, processing of applications
interviewing, selection, and placement.
We will discuss the human resources recruitment function in detail in chapter six.
(3) Human Resources Training and Development
Human resources training and development is the process of equipping employees with
the right knowledge, skills, experience, and attitudes to match their performance capabilities with
the organisation's performance demands. It also involves designing and implementing
management and organisational development programmes, as well as building effective work
teams within the organisation’s structure.
We will discuss the human resources training and development function in detail in
chapter eight.
(4) Human Resources Performance Appraisal
Human resources performance appraisal or performance evaluation is the process of

evaluating employee performance against the stipulated requirements of their jobs. It involves
designing systems of appraising the performance of individual employees, as well as assisting
employees to develop and realise their career plans.
We will discuss the human resources performance appraisal function in detail in chapter
ten.
(5) Human Resources Compensation
Human resources compensation will be defined as the process of determining and

administration of the rewards of employees for their labour inputs in the performance processes
of the organisation. It involves designing and implementing compensation and benefit systems
for all employees, as well as ensuring that compensation and benefits are fair and consistent.
We will discuss the human resources compensation function in detail in chapter fourteen.
(6) Human Resources Safety, and Health
This function seeks to safeguard the safety, and health of employees. It involves
designing and implementing programmes to ensure employee health and safety, as well as
providing welfare and assistance to employees with personal problems that may influence their
work performance.
We will discuss this often-controversial function in chapter fifteen.
(7) Human Resources Labour Relations
Human resources labour relations is the process of managing appropriate relations

between employees and the organisation's management on the one side, and between the
organisation and the unions, government, and society on the other side. The desired intra- and
inter-organisational labour relations environment is usually regulated by the employees' trade

unions and government legislation.
The labour relations function involves the human resources department serving as an
intermediary between the organisation and the employees’ labour unions, as well as designing
discipline and grievance handling machinery and procedures.
We will discuss the labour relations function in detail in chapters sixteen and seventeen.
In Fig. 1-03 below, we have summarised the activities that are performed by the human resources
department under each core function and included under (8) other human resources activities,
which cannot be conveniently ordered under the core functions.
_________________________________________________________
(1) Human Resources Planning
• Forecasting the human resources requirements in terms of quantity and quality necessary
for the organisation to achieve its objectives.
• Conducting job analysis in order to establish human resources requirements of each job
in the organisation.
• Developing and implementing a plan to meet human resources requirements.
• Designing plans to ensure smooth transfers, promotions and demotions, in order to
ensure career advancement and the maintenance of an appropriate match between
employee capabilities and organisational performance demands.
• Designing employee exit programmes.
• Designing employee succession programmes.
• Maintaining an up-to-date data bank and supplying information to user departments for
decision-making.
(2) Human resources recruitment

• Recruiting the human resources required by the organisation to enable it achieve its
objectives.
• Advertising for human resources requirements.
• Processing of applications in co-ordination with the user department.
• Interviewing of job candidates
• Testing the candidates where appropriate
• Selection of suitable candidates for jobs
(3) Human Resources Training and Development

• Training of Employees
• Development of Employees
• Designing and implementing organisational development programmes.
• Designing career plans.
• Assisting employees develop their career.
(4) Human Resources Performance Appraisal

• Designing performance standards for each job.
• Designing methods of appraising employee performance.
• Training of appraisers in order to ensure the successful implementation of the
performance appraisal programme.
• Implementing the performance appraisal programme.
(5) Human Resources Compensation

• Designing of the organisation's compensation programme
• Supervising the organisation's compensation programme.
• Ensuring that salaries and wages, benefits, and incentives are fairly and consistently
administered throughout the organisation.
(6) Human Resources Labour Relations

• Εensuring the maintenance of relations between employees and management, conducive
for effective and efficient organisational performance.
• Ensuring the maintenance of suitable relations between the organisation and trade
unions and government.
(7) Human Resources Security, Safety, and Health

• Designing and implementing employee safety programmes.
• Designing and implementing employee health programmes.
• Designing and implementing employee welfare programmes
• Helping employees cope with stress
(8) Others
• Maintenance of a human resources information base for the organisation.
• Designing and implementing employee communication systems.
• Formulation and supervision of human resources policies.
• Human resources audit and research
• Designing and implementing suitable motivation packages.
• Ensuring job satisfaction and quality of working life.
• Designing and overseeing employee disciplinary policies and procedures.
• Employee orientation.
• Employee placement.
• Job design and analysis.
• Co-ordination of human resources programmes in the organisation.
• Designing and anlaysing jobs.
• Managing termination of contracts of employment
• Managing employee supervision programmes
___________________________________________________________
Fig. 1-03: Activities of human resources management functions
1.10 Functions of the Human Resources Manager
As we shall note in chapter three, the tasks of a human resources manager in of work
organisations are not mainstream tasks. That is to say that no work organisation is established
for the primary mission of managing employees. The work of a human resources manager
therefore is a staff role of the same kind as that of an accountant and an auditor, whose essence
arises because of the inception of people in organisations. In a fully grown up work organisation,
the human resources manager is however a member of top management, as the Zambia Institute
of Personnel Management correctly stress in the following quote:
The Personnel Department is part and parcel of the management set-up and its
head must be directly responsible to the chief executive. His relationships with
other heads of departments should be on the basis of equal membership of the
management team, but being the specialist on personnel matters, he must have the
final say in matters which fall within the sphere of his department.40
It must be emphasised that whereas an organisation's human resources manager is known

by this title, not all the organisation's employees are found in the human resources manager's
department. They are scattered in the various departments of the organisation. The human
resources manager is therefore an expert, a co-ordinator and consultant to all other managers on
matters related to human resources management in the organisation.
All managers in an organisation ought to have a working knowledge of the management

of human resources to enable them to implement human resources policies, fairly independently
in their departments, so that they only need to make occasional reference to the human resources
department for specific guidance on particular issues. It is therefore correct to say that since
human resources management functions are functions which all managers in the organisation
must perform, there is need for the human resources department to maintain its constant
satisfaction that human resources policies and procedures are consistently implemented by all
managers: this is usually done through a human resources audit programme which we discuss in
detail in chapter twenty. For precisely the same reason, we have recommended in various areas
of this book that the human resources department should organise occasional training seminars
and workshops for training departmental managers to administer particular human resources
programmes.
The following are the specific functions of a human resources manager:
(1) Advise and counsel line managers on the correct approaches of implementing human
resources policies and procedures and solving specific human resources problems.
(2) Maintain a healthy organisation by using various indices such as absenteeism,

production efficiency, accident indices, labour turnover, complaints and grievances.
(3) Design human resources procedures and services that ensure standardised humane
treatment for all employees in the whole organisation. Such procedures and services
include schemes of service, recruitment procedures, interviewing, and testing of new
employees, induction or orientation programmes, designing training programmes, wage
and salary surveys, wages and salaries administration, change management, health and
safety engineering, safety services, and employee benefit programmes.
(4) Co-ordination and control of the implementation of personnel policies. This task involves
discussions with managers, inspection, interviewing, and research both in the organisation
and outside.
(5) Design and analyse jobs for purposes of redesign.
(6) Plan for the recruitment, transfers, recategorisations, promotions, demotions, and exit of
employees.
(7) Co-ordinate the management of employee performance.
(8) Manage the training and development of employees in order to ensure the right match
between job demands and employees’ performance capabilities.
(9) Manage employee relations in the workplace i.e. industrial relations, employee
participation and communication.
(10) Manage employee health and safety programmes.
According to the Zambia Institute of Personnel Management, the head of a human

resources department should perform the following tasks:41
(1) Formulating of personnel policies.
(2) Formulation of effective and efficient recruitment and selection procedures.
(3) Taking a leading part in selection and placement of personnel.
(4) Advising management on proper practices of employment, promotion, transfer and

separation of personnel.
(5) Ensuring suitable terms and conditions of service.
(6) Maintaining appropriate remuneration policies and stable salary and job grading
structures.
(7) Providing appropriate health, safety and welfare amenities.

(8) Establishing and promoting good industrial relations and effective communication
systems.
(9) Maintaining effective forward manpower plans and development programmes.
(10) Advising management on statutory rules and regulations affecting employment.
(11) Liaising with Government departments, the Zambia Federation of Employers, the ZCTU
and other recognised bodies.
(12) Undertaking constant review of organisational structure and maintaining up-to-date

personnel records and statistics.
(13) Ensuring that the overall personnel policy, as formulated from time to time, is properly
interpreted and strictly adhered to by both management, staff and employees.
(14) Ensuring effective participation of individual employees in the activities of the

undertaking.
(15) Sensitising Management’s and Worker’s attitudes towards the need for practical
Humanism in Industry.
(16) Contributing, by way of suggestions to the Government, to the formulation of progressive

labour legislation in accordance with the National Philosophy of Humanism and also in
the promotion of manpower planning and development at National level.
1.11 Organising the Human Resources Management Function
The human resources function of a work organisation can be designed in three main
approaches. These approaches are presented in accordance with the growth stages of work
organisations, in order to enhance their understandability..
(1) No Human Resources Unit
Small and young organisations usually do not start with a fully-fledged human resources
department or section. This organising practice is common with many other staff functions in
small and young work organisations with a small workforce and limited number of activities.42
At this stage, usually human resources management tasks are handled by the office of the
chief executive officer, very often with the assistance of his personal secretary and staff officers.
Under such conditions, human resources activities are marginalised. There is a limited number
and growth of the specialised activities and programmes of human resources management mainly
due to shortage or complete lack of qualified personnel, and shortage of influence in the
decision-making machinery mainly due to lack of a qualified leader for HRM functions.
Employees do not receive qualitative and uniform human resources management services from
their managers in different departments. There usually exists a high incidence of employee
complaints and dissatisfaction against the quality of human resources services in the
organisation.
(2) Small Human Resources Unit
As the employees and activities of the young organisation increase however, human
resources functions gradually become a burden to the office of the chief executive and other
managers. At this point the organisation recognises the need for establishing a separate
organisational unit to handle human resources department matters.
Initially, the unit emerges in the form of a section under a department such as Chief
Accountant, Office Manager or even Company Secretary. Under such an arrangement, the head
of the human resources management functions, even if a qualified specialist, cannot make
decisions independent of his or her boss's preferences. His or her boss who is not a specialist in
human resources management, has apart from human resources management, his main
professional functions to take care of. These receive fairer and more preferential treatment over
human resources functions. The head of the human resources management functions does not sit
in management meetings and it is thus correct to say that human resources management matters
are in addition to being marginalised from the strategic decisions of the organisation also
suppressed.
At this stage, there is a marked increase in the activities of the section and a few
programmes may be initiated within the constraints of shortage of resources, a reasonable budget,
and specialists. In Fig 1-04 we illustrate the placement of the human resources unit when it is
first formed in a young and growing work organisation. In its infancy, the unit still performs a
limited number of functions, usually recruitment, performance appraisal, and maintaining of
employee records.
_____________________________________________________________
GENERAL MANAGER
SALES MANAGER CHIEF ACCOUNTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER
PERSONNEL OFFICER ACCOUNTANT-LEDGERS ACCOUNTANT-CASH

CLERK CLERK
______________________________________________________________
Fig. 1-04: The Human Resources Section in a Young Organisation
(3) A Human Resources Department
As the work force and activities of the young organisation grow in size and complexity,
the human resources section increases in size and importance. In response, the human resources
department is created as an autonomous department and its manager becomes a member of top
management and thus reports directly to the chief executive officer. Inside the department, the
increase of human resources tasks in both magnitude and complexity compels horizontal and
vertical growth i.e. specialisation and stratification of the functions as illustrated in Fig. 1-05. At
this stage, the department has its own budget, a larger staff, and a substantial amount of influence
in the decision-making machinery of the organisation. So, the department initiates more human
resources programmes, and has the ability to ensure greater uniformity in the treatment of
employees throughout the organisation.
_____________________________________________________________
GENERAL MANAGER
MARKETING MANAGER H. RESOURCES MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER
ASST. MANAGER ASST. MANAGER ASST. MANAGER ASST. MANAGER

LABOUR RELATIONS RECRUITMENT TRAINING & DEVPT. COMPENSATION
SPECIALIST SPECIALIST SPECIALIST SPECIALIST SPECIALIST

___________________________________________________________
Fig. 1-05: The Human Resources Department in a Large Organisation.
A fully-grown up organisation seeking to set up a fully-fledged department should

involve its current human resources specialists in providing the needed information for designing
the department.43 The information that must be collected for this purpose is that required to
address the following key organisational issues. These are the issues that will determine the
actual size and complexity of the new department.
(1) The number of roles that the department is expected to play. The numbers of roles, which
the new department plays, often depends on the number, top management views and is willing to
allow the new department to play at any one time.
(2) The necessity for locating human resources staff in geographical organisational units in
order to place human resources services within convenient reach of user units.
(3) The need for a fair and consistent application of personnel policies throughout the
organisation regardless of its size.
(4) The importance of permitting the human resources department to make expert
contributions into the organisation's human resources policy.
(5) The need for the human resources department to carry sufficient influence to make sure
that the organisation will implement human resources policies legally, affirmatively, and without
discrimination.
(6) The necessity for the human resources department to be proactive and innovative by
designing programmes that prevent rather than wait to correct human resources problems.
It is important that a fully-grown up work organisation allows its human resources

department to function at all of the three levels i.e. strategic, managerial, and operational, so that
it can demonstrate its effectiveness throughout the organisation.
Human resources management functions can be either centralised or decentralised. A

centralised human resources management approach means that all the essential decisions are
made, and the policies are formulated at headquarters. A centralised human resources
management approach distances key advice, decision making, and other human resources
services from places where the relevant actions take place, thus resulting in remote controlling of
human resources services.
A decentralised human resources management approach however, means that the

essential decision making and policy implementation are performed in several locations in the
organisation thus resulting in increased quality of decisions i.e. more accurate decision making
and more efficient delivery of human resources services. Here, organisational units e.g.
divisions, and departments are allowed to set up their own human resources units which make
most key human resources decisions and refer just a few to the headquarters. Usually routine
tasks are decentralised, while non-routine human resources tasks are retained in the headquarters.
Again, with the increase of regulatory requirements over human resources management
and the complexity of human resources functions, many organisations are moving away from
using human resources generalists toward human resources specialists. Thus large,
divisionalised organisations e.g. large financial organisations and industrial organisations,
maintain a corporate human resources department staffed largely with specialists and divisional
human resources departments staffed largely with generalists. The corporate or headquarters
human resources department then develops and co-ordinates human resources policies for all
employees in all the locations of the organisation, and executes the human resources functions
for employees at the headquarters.44 However, as the divisions grow, they are given powers to
hire their own specialists and to administer nearly all of their human resources functions fairly
independently.
There is a feature in the design of human resources functions which is common to many
organisations in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and probably many more African countries,
which we would like to highlight in this section. We have already stated this as a tendency used
by work organisations to underrate the professionalism of human resources management, earlier
in this chapter. In many organisations in these countries, notably the civil service and public
organisations, human resources functions are combined with administrative services to form one
department known variably as Personnel and Administration, or Human Resources Development
and Administration. This is a design tradition which people have merely taken for granted and
maintained, but which is not backed up by any technical justification.
Administrative services usually include a large panoply of items such as the provision of
tea, transport services, cleaning of work surroundings, cutting grass, planting and maintenance of
flowers, cleaning of offices and toilets, cafeteria services, organisational security, organisation of
parties, travel services, writing minutes of meetings, etc. As an instructor in human resources
management, the author has had to try to satisfy his students often without success, when they
ask: but sir, what is human resources in these other services? Or even more subtly: under what
human resources functions do these tasks fall? Let us take this opportunity to clarify that there is
no scientific design principle which explains why such services should always be organised in
the same department with human resources functions. As a matter of fact, the design pairing of
administrative services with human resources functions is one of the reasons why people doubt
the professionalism of human resources management as we have argued in section 1.06
Administrative services can be organised under autonomous departments in large

organisations where their volume and annual value warrant the treatment.45 A positive
consideration for organisational performance would favour separation where possible so that
human resources departments concentrate more sharply on their primary role, while
administrative services are more efficiently dealt with by an exclusive department. Where
administrative services cannot because of volume and value, be organised under an autonomous
department, they can conveniently be organised under the Accounting, Supplies, or the Office
Management departments.
1.12 Who Performs HR Functions?
Basically all managers are periodically involved to some extent in human resources
management functions. This statement is supported by the basic definition of management, as
well as the primacy of human resources in organisational performance. This reality underscores
the reason why all managers need a working knowledge of managing people in organisational
performance.
For instance, at one time or another, almost all managers are involved in some aspects of
employee planning, recruitment, orientation, training and development, appraisal, supervision,
compensation, team building, and disciplining. In most small organisations, most human
resources functions are performed by the owner or by operating managers. An operating
manager or line manager is a person who manages people directly involved with the production
of an organisation’s products or services, e.g., a production manager in a manufacturing plant, or
loan manager in a bank.
On the contrary, many medium-size and some large organisations use human resources
generalists for their human resources roles. A human resources generalist is an officer who
devotes a majority of working time to human resources issues, but does not specialise in any
specific areas of human resources management. Large organisations usually have a human
resources department that is responsible for directing the human resources functions. In addition
to a few human resources generalists, a human resources department is normally staffed by one
or more human resources specialists. A human resources specialist is normally trained in one or
more specific areas of human resources management. However, even in large organisations that
have a human resources department with many human resources generalists and specialists most
operating or line managers must regularly perform and be involved with may of the human
resources management functions.
1.13 Place and Role of the Human Resources Department
The human resources department is a service department to the different performance

processes of the work organisation. It exists in order to assist ordinary employees, managers and
the organisation in all matters related to the effective management of people so that they can
willingly make maximum contributions to the organisation's performance processes. The human
resources department does not have a line authority over other departments; instead it has staff
authority over them in relation to human resources management programmes. In this capacity, it
largely operates as a co-ordinator, consultant, and advisor to management, unions, and employees
on all human resources management activities.
Line authority in this case refers to the ability of the human resources department to
command or require other departments to carry out instructions related to the mainstream tasks of
the organisation.46 Staff authority in this case refers to the ability of the human resources
department to advise, not to direct, other departments as to how best they may implement the
organisation's policies and procedures of managing human resources.
Though advisory, the staff authority of the human resources department is powerful. A
line manager is in principle not obligated to take the advice given to him or her by the human
resources department. But in rejecting the advice, the line manager stands to carry full
responsibility for the outcomes, such as employee relations problems, and strikes. So, in order to
avoid such consequences, line managers usually readily accept the advice given to them by the
human resources department. As a result the human resources department exercises considerable
influence on the decisions of line managers and is highly respected in modern and successful
work organisations.
Because of the pivotal role occupied by human resources in comparison with technical
resources, the human resources department occupies a central service role to the goal-
achievement efforts of every work organisation.
1.14 Objectives of Human Resources Management
In conclusion of this chapter, let us discuss the four objectives which a well designed and
managed human resources function should seek to achieve.
The objectives of human resources management can be defined as the benchmarks against which
the effectiveness of human resources functions are evaluated. These are the goals which can help
us answer the questions, "have our human resources programmes been successful? Has the
human resources department been making the correct decisions?" Let us conclude our discussion
in this chapter by outlining the benchmarks against which the effectiveness of human resources
programmes can be evaluated. On objectives, the Zambia Institute of Personnel Management
states:
To ensure at all times the availability to the organisation of adequate and suitable
manpower resources, to provide progressive ways of organising and treating people at work so
that they get satisfaction in their jobs and gain the greatest possible realisation of their abilities,
thereby keeping them motivated and therefore maximising their performance so that they
willingly make optimum contribution to the organisation in which they have a stake.47
Human resources management, like all other programmes achieves its purposes by
meeting its pre-set objectives. In some work organisations, objectives are carefully thought out
and expressed in writing in an approach known as management by objectives which we discuss
in chapter ten. There are many organisations, however, in which the objectives are not formally
documented. In both cases, the objectives do exist and they guide the human resources
management programmes in practice. What are these objectives?
(1) Social responsibility
Human resources management aims to enable the organisation to fulfil its responsibility
to the society in which it exists. As we shall see in chapter three, organisations do not simply
exist in society: they are formed in order to render to society specific goods and or services to
enable society satisfy its day-to-day needs. The continued existence of organisations can only be
justified by their continued ability to produce the goods and or services they were designed to
produce, or simply stated, their continued ability to fulfil their social responsibility. The
fulfilment of the organisations' social responsibility is a result of human labour. So it is correct
to state that one important objective of the human resources department is to help the
organisation fulfil its responsibility to society. It does this by designing and implementing
suitable human resources programmes that enable employees to contribute effectively towards
the achievement of their organisation's goals. Please vend to chapter three for a more detailed
discussion of the concept of social responsibility of work organisations.
(2) Employee service
Human resources management aims to help employees to achieve their personal

objectives, insofar as their personal objectives enhance the employees' contribution towards the
achievement of the objectives of their organisation. Again as we explain in chapter three,
employees have personal objectives which they seek to satisfy through working for the
organisation. When the organisation meets these objectives the employees can be motivated and
retained. Therefore, another important objective of the human resources department is to design
and implement suitable human resources programmes which enable employees to satisfy their
personal objectives through performing their duties well in the organisation.
(3) Organisational effectiveness
The third objective of human resources management is to enable the employees

contribute the best and most of their labour input towards the achievement of their organisation's
objectives. Human resources management is not an end in itself, it should be a means of
assisting the work organisation to attain results. Simply stated, human resources management
exists in order to serve the work organisation: to make it succeed.
(4) Economic level of service
The last objective of human resources management is to perform its functions at an

economic level appropriate to the needs of the organisation. This can be done if the services of
the human resources department are maintained at a level which is not more or less costly or
sophisticated than the organisation requires.
In practice, it is not possible for all human resources programmes to meet the above four
objectives all the time. The more human resources management decisions are able to meet these
objectives, the better the human resources department’s contribution to the organisation's
effectiveness. As we stated at the beginning of this section, these four objectives are
benchmarks, and so the purpose is for the human resources department to achieve as many as it
can.
1.15 Challenges for HR Managers
The field of human resources management has grown and moved beyond mere
administration of the functions of recruitment, training and compensation. Today, HRM is much
more integrated into both the management and the strategic planning processes of work
organisations.48 The growth in the role of human resources management pauses important
challenges to all human resources practitioners in all kinds of social organisations. HR
practitioners need to master the sources of these challenges and prepare to deal with them. Let us
discuss these challenges.
(a) Diversity in the work force
A close examination of recent national and global initiatives to provide increased

opportunities for women to access higher education, to participate in economic and political
activities suggests that the future will see a rising percentage of female employees in work
organisations of a private and public type. This particular dimension of workforce diversity will
have such significant ramifications for organisations as considerations for child care, spouse
relocation, pregnancy leave, and flexible hours for breast feeding and child clinic appointments,
and stay-at-home assignments and jobs.
A second dimension is increase in the number of employees above the age of

55 years after Parliament increased voluntary retirement age from 50 to 55 and compulsory
retirement age from 55 to 60 years for all employees in Tanzania.49 The older employees will
likely be more experienced, reliable, and stable, but possibly less adaptable to change and less
responsive to retraining.
The third dimension of diversity is related to the increasing globalisation of economies in

the world today. The whole world will see a greater diversity of both suppliers and customers of
a yet greater diversity of goods and services. The ramifications of this dimension to work
organisations in Countries of the South will include a change in the attitude of HR practitioners
towards people. The increasing globalisation of Northern companies will bring to Southern work
organisations employees of varying races, and cultures. HR practitioners will to perceive
employees and everything that makes them as different from one another, as well as the things
that make them similar.
Specifically, what challenges and contributions will increasing diversity in the work force
present to HR practitioners?
First, HR practitioners must start to genuinely recognise diversity among employees i.e.
getting away from the tradition of fitting all employees into a single straight jacket. People are
diverse: they will not look and act the same. Organisations must create new HR policies to
guide managers in decision-making so as to enable them to respond better to the unique needs of
employees as individuals.
Increasing diversity will create certain specific challenges but also make significant
contributions. Globalisation for instance will likely create communication problems e.g.
misunderstandings among employees and managers, as well as creating the necessity for
organisations to translate verbal and written materials into several new languages. In order to
respond to these problems, organisations will have to conduct training programmes to equip
employees with such basic skills as writing and problem solving.
Increasing diversity will present organisations with new opportunities e.g. a culture of
greater tolerance of different behavioural styles and views. Such an opportunity will lead to
better business decisions and certainly enhance the capability of employees to respond to diverse
groups of customers.
(b) Technological Changes
New technologies pause another challenge to human resources managers. In general,

technological changes affecting human resources management are widespread, but probably none
are more dramatic than those related to computers. In addition to using computers in performing
the traditional functions of accounting and payroll calculations, computers today can be used to
maintain and facilitate access to employee data that are valuable in job placement and human
resources deployment. Computers can also be used in employee training, manpower planning,
management of employee exit programmes, as well as compensation management. Cyberspace
and the Internet are changing the way human resources managers are used to operating. Today, it
is possible for a human resources manager to conduct research using electronic databases, recruit
personnel, and disseminate information to various departments and employees, networking, as
well as conducting useful group meetings at minimum cost.
(c) Speed
During the 1980’s business organisations in developed countries developed a culture for
increased product and service quality in terms of speed. Due to dependence of African
economies on external loans and aid, this development has had a significant impact on work
culture in African work organisations. Although quality will still be important, the
distinguishing competitive issue in the 2000’s will be how fast products and services can be
delivered to customers.
Customers in African economies today, are more conscious of time than before. They
want things fast, and work organisations everywhere, will have to be designed and managed to
encourage quick collaboration and instant response, all the time keeping quality high.50 The
challenge for human resources managers is to cultivate the “speed culture” in their organisations,
so that payment processes take shorter, bank loan processes take shorter, etc. The saying by
Europeans “Africans have all the time in the world” is no longer true.
(d) Structural Changes
Modern work organisations are undergoing may structural changes that present another
challenge for human resources managers. The most common of these changes are usually those
caused by re-engineering, downsizing of the workforce, rightsizing, as well as outsourcing.
(i) Re-engineering refers to a fundamental rethinking and radical re-

designing of business processes in order to achieve dramatic
improvements in cost control, quality re-assurance, service, and speed.51
In essence, re-engineering processes usually involve changes in
management approaches, as well as changes in organisational structures.
(ii) Downsizing is the process of laying off of large numbers of employees in

order to strike a balance between the desired size of the workforce in
relation to the available quantity of work. Due to poor human resources
planning, the workforce in most organisations being privatised by the
Public Service Reform Programme in post-socialist Tanzania had to be
downsized. Downsizing the workforce is a process that the non-HRM
specialists commonly refer to as “manpower rationalisation”.
(iii) Rightsizing is closely related to downsizing. Rightsizing is the

continuous and proactive assessment of mission-critical activities of the
organisation and its staffing requirements with the objective of ensuring
that staffing levels remain meaningfully relevant to current and foreseen
mission-critical activities. The real difference between rightsizing and
downsizing is that the former is an ongoing planning process to determine
the optimal number of employees in every area of the organisation.
(iv) Outsourcing is the decision to subcontract work to an outside

organisation that specialises in a particular type of work. Examples of
work that is normally contracted out to outside organisations include
consultancy services to formulate HR policies and procedures, review of
staffing levels, review of organisational structures, design of training
programmes etc.
(e) Managerial Changes
New changes in management approaches to recruiting, organising, design of work

processes are pausing a challenge to human resources managers today. In post-socialist
Tanzania, many organisations are approaching the recruitment function more professionally than
before, in order to curb the problems of recruiting vihiyo and persons with the wrong
qualifications.52 In the same spirit, most organisations are opting for contract rather than
permanent terms of employment, in order to induce their employees to earn their stay in the
organisations rather than merely “remaining around and being careful not to rock the boat”.
Also many organisations are avoiding the build-up of fleets of pool vehicles, and opting
for hiring transport services when they require them, or encouraging their managers to own
private vehicles and chauffeur themselves for an allowance. Similarly many organisations are
opting for the hiring of services for their support functions e.g. cleaning services, and grounds
maintenance services.
(f) Government Regulations
Due to the rapid changes in the economies of African countries since the 1980’s
governments have been making a number of regulations and laws such as in the areas of
employee participation in multi-party politics, health and safety, equal employment opportunities
for men and women as well as disadvantaged groups, pension reforms, labour unions, and the
environment. Such regulations and laws introduce a significant increase in paperwork,
negotiations, networking initiatives, handling of cases, and implementing court decisions.
(g) South-Africanisation of African Economies
Following the fall of apartheid in 1995 South Africa has entered the markets of many
African countries by buying off companies, or entering into joint-venture arrangements with local
owners in many African countries. This development has been further facilitated by economic
liberalisation policies of the 1980’s as well as the fall of the socialist experiment in many African
countries. In Tanzania for instance, South African investors bought off the National Bank of
Commerce, acquired majority shares in Tanzania Breweries Limited, Coca Cola Kwanza
Limited, Dar Brew Limited, and Tanzania Distilleries Limited etc.
The resulting challenges are that the affected companies have had to swiftly adjust
themselves to new marketing techniques, higher standards of efficiency, cleanliness, speed of
service delivery, higher levels of quality, as well as greater concern for a professionalised human
resources management function.
(h) Empowerment of Employees
Most of the challenges discussed above have caused changes in organisational designs, as
well as corresponding changes in ways of motivating employees. In many enlightened work
organisations, employees are considered associates or partners. The challenge here is to make
managers reject the by-the-numbers approach to management, recognising that an increasingly
important part of their role is to show others that they really care. Human resources managers are
redesigning jobs, in order to make them more human and flexible, designing better career
ladders, paying people better, improving working environments and tools.
1.16 HRM in the Future
In order to meet the challenges of the future, tomorrow’s human resources departments
will have to be much more sophisticated than their predecessors. In almost all African countries
today, the role of human resources management is expanding faster than ever before. It is
essential that human resources managers be integrally involved in their organisation’s strategic
and policy making activities. Quite clearly, there are signs that this is beginning to happen in
many organisations. For example in the majority of companies that have been privatised during
turn of the 20th century in Tanzania e.g. Tanzania Cigarette Company, Tanzania Breweries
Limited, National Bank of Commerce, Coca Cola Kwanza Limited, Dar Brew Limited, there is
a an autonomous department of human resources management and its head reports to the chief
executive officer. He or she sits on the board of directors, the planning committee and other key
participatory organs.
But if the future’s human resources managers are to earn the respect of their colleagues
and of top management, they are going to have to work hard to overcome certain negative
impressions that ill-wishers often associate with the human resources management profession.53
This could be accomplished in a number of ways. We suggest four way sand discuss them
briefly below.
First, organisations should shift from conducting the human resources function with
“common-sense personnel”. This means that work organisations should staff human resources
departments with persons qualified in the human resources management profession. In future,
the demands on the human resources function will make it clear to management, that it will be
unserious and absurd to staff human resources departments with mathematicians, engineers,
biologists and similar non-professional personnel.
Secondly, human resources managers will need to become well-rounded businesspeople.

This means, that in addition to being well-grounded in the basic disciplines of the HRM
profession, human resources managers should strive to increase their conversance in the
complexities that face their work organisations. This initiative will help to overcome the
misguided feeling among people that HRM people do not understand the operating problems and
issues facing their organisation.
Thirdly, human resources managers should strive to become generally knowledgeable

about current and future trends and issues in their organisation’s operating environment. In so
doing, human resources managers can effectively guard themselves against becoming enamoured
with passing fads or using outdated and ineffective techniques.
Fourthly, human resources managers will have to promote the effective deployment of
human resources in their organisations. They should stress the importance of increasing profits
through effectively using the organisation’s human resources. In the minimum, this is what
makes direct sense to operating managers. In this way, human resources managers should learn
to be proactive and seize opportunities to demonstrate how they can positively affect the bottom
line. Below we outline eleven specific ways, how human resources managers can have direct
impact on company profits.
(a) Reduce unnecessary overtime expenses by increasing productivity during a

normal working day.
(b) Stay on top of absenteeism and institute programs designed to reduce money spent
for time not worked.
(c) Get rid of time wastage by employees through sound job design.
(d) Minimise employee turnover and unemployment benefit costs by practising sound
human relations and creating a work atmosphere that promotes job satisfaction.
(e) Install and monitor effective health and safety programmes to reduce lost-time
accidents and keep medical and workers compensation costs low.
(f) Train and develop all employees so that they can improve their value to the
organisation and do a better job of producing and selling high-quality products
and services at the lowest possible cost.
(g) Decrease costly material wastage by eliminating bad work habits and attitudes and
poor working conditions that lead to carelessness and mistakes.
(h) Recruit the best people available on the market for all job positions and keep an
eye on overstaffing.
(i) Maintain competitive pay practices and benefit programmes to foster a

motivational climate for all employees.
(j) Encourage employees to contribute ideas for increasing productivity and cost
reduction.
(k) Encourage management practices that focus the organisation’s performance more
on mainstream than support activities. Wherever possible, procure support
services from outside rather than getting the organisation to provide them.54
1.17 HRM in Practice
Incident 1-1: Need for a HRM Department in a Professional Organisation
You Juma Temu are a senior accountant of a large private accounting and audit company
in Mwanza city, Tanzania. The managing director of the company has appointed you branch
director of the company’s branch in Dar es Salaam, and you are required to report to your work
station with immediate effect. This branch is 1 out of 8 branches located in Moshi, Arusha,
Dodoma, Mbeya, Tanga, Zanzibar, and Iringa, under the head office located in Mwanza. The
company has 122 employees 85% of whom are certified accountants with full accounting
qualifications from reputable accounting associations such as National Board of Accountants and
Auditors (CPA (T)), and the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Generally, the company has been doing successful business since its establishment in
1994. But in the past five years, many of the younger professional staff have been leaving the
company and joining its competitors, an issue that has been disturbing the board of directors.
The managing director is convinced the problem is not pay, because a recent survey has indicated
that the company’s pay structure is one of the best among those of major companies in the
professional accounting industry.
After getting settled in Dar es Salaam, one of your first projects is to meet with your four
senior managers to determine why the branch has had such a high attrition rate among the
younger professionals. At the meeting, one of your managers Ibrahim Sabuni, age 42, states that
the younger staff is unaware of the career opportunities provided by the company, lacks
commitment to their work, and fails to appreciate the company’s heavy investment in training
them. Another manager Erasmus Kaijage, age 52 says the younger staff have been complaining
about the lack of meaningful feedback on their performance due to the secretive nature in which
staff performance appraisal is conducted. He further explains that the last branch director’s
managerial style could be a cause of the problem. The younger staff had complained that the
work environment was becoming a bit too mechanistic, with problems such as little information
dissemination to staff, low task flexibility, unusually high reliance on hierarchical control of
organisational life, too close supervision, over-emphasis of the top-to-bottom communication
style, high emphasis on loyalty and obedience demands from young accountants, an open-door
communication and reporting policy, etc.
Bernard Kijiko, age 40, believes the problem is absence of team work and joint
responsibility, as well as limited opportunities for staff participation in the management of the
company’s affairs. Amina Baruti aged 35, the only female manager in the branch, believes the
root of the problem is the absence of a human resources department in the company, though she
cautions, when she mentioned the idea to the managing director in Mwanza, it was totally
rejected.
Questions:
1. What do you think about Amina’s idea of establishing a human resources department in the
company?
2. Prepare a paper to sell the idea of establishing a human resources department to the
managing director at the joint management meeting in Mwanza next month. In the paper,
clearly show the advantages which the company and the staff will reap from establishing the
department.
3. Propose an organisational structure for the human resources department showing how it
would fit in the company’s structure.
Incident 1-2: Selecting HRM as a Specialisation
Rose Ngeve is a first-year student on the B. Com. programme, a 3 year degree programme
in the Faculty of Commerce & Management at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
According to the programme, students start specialising in Accounting & Finance, Marketing,
Management Sciences, and Human Resources Management in the second year. Rose has not
fully decided what her specialisation should be. The human resources specialisation started only
last year with the personal efforts of Professor Mbwette, an Organisational and HRM expert, a
consultant much sought after by government and leading local as well as foreign organisations.
Last week, Professor Mbwette, who is also the first head of the HRM Department, made
an impressive presentation to first-year B Com. students, praising HRM as the specialisation that
the employers badly need today, after Tanzania’s economic liberalisation moves of the 1990’s.
According to Professor Mbwette, B. Com. graduates in HRM “will experience the ‘fortunate
problem’ of having to choose which jobs to accept among numerous offers by employers. All
other B. Com. graduates in the other specialisations will continue to apply for jobs, and be
prepared to wait at home for many years. Join the only specialisation with an employment
guarantee. Besides, employers have expressed interest to provide B. Com. second-year and third-
year HRM students with vocational employment during the short as well as long holidays.”
Rose’s first year course in management did not impress her. She thinks this was due to
the lecturer, Dr. Katunda. He was a boring instructor, who read his notes word-after-word, spent
a lot of his lecture time writing notes on the chalkboard, and disliked being asked questions. At
the end of the first year, students had not learnt much in Management. They memorised their
notes in order to pass the examinations, and clearly no student would have majored in
management if it were one of the faculty’s specialisations. But unlike this instructor in the first
year, most of the instructors of other management courses in the second and third years were
reported to be lively and very impressive. Rose decided to visit Prof. Mbwette and talk to him
about her dilemma. The following conversation ensued:
Rose: Good morning Professor Mbwette. My name is Rose Ngeve. I have just completed my
first-year B. Com. studies, and have passed all my annual examinations. I would like
your advice on selecting a field of specialisation in my second year. Right now, I just do
not know what to do.
Professor: Good morning Rose. Please sit down. Just let me say that you are currently making
an important decision and your concern is justified. If you make a mistake in a decision
of this kind, you normally make a life-long mistake. Can you please tell me the
management courses you took in our faculty during the year?
Rose: Only “Principles of Management” conducted by Dr. Katunda, plus two basic courses i.e.
Marketing and Statistics. I must confess that although I passed all of them well, I did not
like the management course.
Professor: How about majoring in Human Resources Management? Tell me Rose, did you
attend my address to first year students at the end of the last academic year?
Rose: Yes Professor I was present and must admit most students were very impressed by the
address. But what we learnt from Dr. Katunda is a sharp contrast to your presentation,
and has driven us into a choice dilemma. If I am not mistaken you will be receiving
many other colleagues for advice. We were given to understand that HRM jobs are
basically staff jobs that cannot really lead us to any responsible positions in our career.
Professor: Hold on Rose. First of all I must apologise for causing this unfortunate confusion. I
think I’d better tell you a little more about Human Resources Management.
Questions:
1. Imagine you were Professor Mbwette, what would you tell Rose Ngeve?
2. What real future trends in your country do you see that might help persuade B. Com.
students to major in Human Resources Management?
1.18 Progress Questions
(1) Briefly discuss the differences between human resources management and personnel
management.
(2) Outline the contributions to the development of human resources management made by
three out of the following movements, research studies, and scientific fields:
(a) Scientific Management

(b) Industrial Psychology
(c) Hawthorne Studies
(d) Human Relations Movement
(e) Behavioural Sciences
(3) Outline the main functions of human resources management in the performance of a work
organisation.
(4) (a) What do you understand by a profession? Use universal characteristic features to
back up your answer.
(b) Basing on your answer in (a) above, would you consider human resources
management a profession in your country? Explain reasons for your answer.
(5) Briefly assess the professional status of HRM in your country. What do you suggest
should be done to accelerate the process?
(6) Discuss the tendencies which cause people to underrate the professionalism of the human
resources management occupation in your country.
(7) Briefly outline the specific tasks that a human resources manager performs in an
organisation.
(8) Describe the position of, and operational relationship between the human resources
department and other departments in a work organisation.
(9) With the aid of an organigramme, critically discuss the alternative approaches of
organising the human resources function in work organisations in this country.
(10) What are the major objectives of human resources management in the management of a
work organisation?
(11) With the help of examples, discuss the major challenges facing HR managers in your
country today. Suggest how HR managers may respond to these challenges.
1.19 Notes and References

1
see US Department of Commerce, "Statistical Abstract of the United States", 111th edition, US
Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1991, 445.
2
compare with FRENCH W.L., "Human Resources Management", Houghton Mifflin Co.,
Boston, 1990, p.8. We disagree however, with French's following statements: "The term
personnel management or perhaps modern personnel management - means the same thing.
Sometimes the terms personnel and industrial relations, personnel and labour relations, and
employee relations are used to designate the same concept."
3
Adapted from GLUECK W.F., "Personnel, a diagnostic approach", Business Publications Inc.
Plano, Texas 1982, p.11
4
Zambia Institute of Personnel Management Publication No. 3, “A Guide to Personnel Practice
in Zambia, Lusaka”, 1985 p.1.
5
TORRINGTON D. and HALL L., "Personnel Management: A New Approach" Prentice Hall,
New York, 1991.
6
WERTHER W.B. and DAVIS K., "Personnel Management and Human Resources", McGraw-
Hill Book Company, 1985.
7
see also CHRUDEN H.J. and SHERMAN A.W., "Managing Human Resources", South-
Western Publishing Co. Cincinnati, 1984 p.4.
8
In all organisations observed, the author noted that personnel managers were indigenous
Tanzanians, and not recruited on the basis of their academic or professional qualifications.
Their major leverage appeared to be their indigenous citizenship and therefore appropriateness
to bargain with the indigenous Tanzanian employees, government, political organs, and trade
unions in the undesired event of a labour unrest.
9
refer to chapter 3.04 for a detailed discussion of the systems theory.
10
compare with CORNWALL D.J., "Human Resource Programmes:
Blue Sky or Operating Priority?" Business Horizons, Vol.23, No. 1,
April, 1980, p. 49.
11
refer to chapter 3.04 for a detailed discussion of the systems theory.
12
Genesis 1:26 The Holy Bible.
13
Genesis 1:27 The Holy Bible.
Genesis 2:15, 21-22 The Holy Bible.
14
Genesis 2:16-17 The Holy Bible.
15
Genesis 3:17-19, 23 The Holy Bible.
16
A guild is an organisation of people who possess the same skills and perform the same job.
17
EMERSON H. "The Twelve Principles of Efficiency", in The Engineering Magazine Co., New
York, 1913.
18
TAYLOR F.W., "What is Scientific Management?" reprinted in MERRILL H.F. (ed.), "Classics
in Management", American Management Associations, New York, 1960 p. 80.
19
GREENBERG J. and BARON R.A., “Behaviour in Organisations: Understanding and
Managing the Human Side of Work", Prentice-Hall International, Inc., 1995 pp.17-19.
20
MUNSTERBERG H., "Psychology and Industrial Efficiency", Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1913.
21
SCOTT W.D. and CLOTHIER R.C., “Personnel Management: Practices and Point of View”,
A.W. Shaw and Co., New York, 1923.
22
INGHAM W. Van D. and MOORE .V., “How to Interview", Harper and Brothers, New York,
1931.
see also INGHAM W. Van D., "Aptitudes and Aptitude Testing", Harper and Brothers, New
York, 1931.
23
GERBER P.D., NEL P.S., VAN DYK P.S. “International Thompson Publishing (SA)
(Pty) Ltd., Johannesburg 1998 pp.29 – 20
24
Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, Collins Publishers, London, 1987.
25
See also CHRUDEN H. J. and SHERMAN A.W. Op. Cit. pp. 13 - 19.
see also TORRINGTON D. and HALL L., Op. Cit. pp. 19 - 20.
see also SCHULER R.S. and HUBER V.L., "Personnel and Human Resource Management,
West Publishing Company, New York, 1987, p.30 - 31
26
GERBER P.D., NEL P.S., VAN DYK P.S. Op. Cit. p.31
27
TORRINGTON D. and HALL L., Op. Cit. p.19.
28
See also CHRUDEN H.J. and SHERMAN A.W. Op Cit., pp. 13 - 14.
29
The South African Board for Personnel Practice states its mission as to establish. Conduct and
maintain a high standard of professionalism and ethical behaviour in personnel practice.
30
This is the most common design practice in Eastern and Southern African Universities.
31
TORRINGTON D. and HALL L., Op. Cit. p..3.
32
33
WILEY B. "Accreditation: What Do We Need That For?" The Personnel Administrator,
November, 1975, p.39.
34
Up-to-date details of Training Institutions that offer courses in Human Resources Management,
organised under country names is available in a yearly publication called, "The World of
Learning". This publication is available in all good libraries.
35
See for example the Zimbabwe Institute of Personnel Management.
36
Please refer to our discussion later in this chapter, on the professionalism of human resources
management.
37
Please refer to chapter three for a detailed presentation of Henry Mintzberg’s model of
classifying human resources in organisations.
38
See also CHRUDEN H. J. and SHERMAN A.W. Op. Cit. p. 550.
39
Please refer to our disducssion on the professionalism of human resources management later in
this chapter.
40
in Zambia, Lusaka”, 1985 p.4.
41
in Zambia, Lusaka”, 1985 pp.1-2.
42
e.g. accounting. It is not unusual for a small firm to start without a full fledged accounting
department. The accounting function is normally performed as part of the duties of the chief
executive.
43
Please note that the existing human resources department staff should not be left alone to design
their department, they should only provide the information needed for this purpose. This
restriction is a safeguard against existing staff building their personal interests into the design of
the new department.
44
An example of a divisionalised industrial organisation whose human resources function is
organised like this is the Aluminium Africa Limited in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
45
Certainly, in large organisations such as the National Insurance Corporation of Tanzania Ltd.,
and Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd., and large government ministries, administrative
services can efficiently be organised under an autonomous department instead of being
combined with the human resources department.
46
refer to chapter three for a detailed discussion of the categorisation of organisational tasks.
47
in Zambia”, Lusaka, 1985 p.3.
48
CAUDROS S. “HR Leaders Brainstorm the Profession’s Future” Personnel Journal, August
1994, pp.54-61. See also our earlier section on HRM versus Personnel Management.
49
Quote Act No…….of 1999.
50
PETERS T. “Time-Obsessed Competition” Management Review, September, 11990, p. 16-20.
51
HAMMER M. and CHAMPY, “Reengineering the Corporation” Harper Collins, New
York, 1993.
52
Vihiyo is a Swahili term for employees with fake or forged qualifications.
53
These negative impressions were discussed in detail in Section 1.06 in this chapter.
54
See also: GOW J.F. “Human Resources Managers Must Remember the Bottom Line”
Personnel Journal, April 1985 p. 32.

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Chapter 01: Evolution of Human Resources Management...........…. 2

Chapter 02: The Environment of Organisations..............................…. 49

Chapter 03: Organisational Issues of Human Resources Management 76

EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RESOURCES

1.00 Chapter Outline……………………………………….. 2

1.01 Learning Objectives.......................................................... 3

1.01 Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

(1) Define human resources management.

(2) Differentiate human resources management from personnel management.

(3) Trace stages in the development of the field of human resources

(4) Scientifically defend the professionalism of the field of the human

(6) Outline the core functions of human resources management.

(10)Discuss the major objectives of human resources management in the

Human resources management or HRM as it is commonly abbreviated, is concerned with

Human resources management is a modern terminology for what traditionally used to be

1.03 Definition of Human Resources Management

Human resources management can be defined as a managerial philosophy, policies,

“That part of management which is concerned with continual adoption of an

1.04 Human Resources or Personnel Management?

Traditionally the functions of managing people in work organisations used to be known

(3) Human resources management is organised as a strategic management function, at par

The human resources department is an autonomous department with component

(6) As a strategic management function, human resources management is proactive, while

1.05 Development of Human Resources Management

(1) The Guild System16

(2) The Factory System

(3) The Mass Production System

(a) Scientific Management

The method of scientific management, which involved an objective and systematic

(b) Industrial Psychology

(c) The Hawthorne Studies

(d) The Human Relations Movement

(e) The Behavioural Sciences

As the human relations movement developed, the understanding of human behaviour

The major contribution of the behavioural sciences to human resources management is

(f) Development of High Technology

1.06 The Human Resources Management Profession?

questions. What is a profession? What universal characteristics should an occupation possess in

HRM as a formally recognised functional area in management is a fairly new discipline.

(1) Skills must be acquirable through specialised training and education.

(3) Members must demonstrate competence by passing prescribed examinations. They

The foregoing characteristics are adequately demonstrated by such occupations as

In some countries human resources practitioners have not formed a professional

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION

Each member of the American Society for Personnel Administration shall

(3) Support the self-enforcement provisions in the codes of other associations to

1.07 The Status of HRM in Tanzania

The debate on whether in Tanzania human resources management is a profession or not is

(1) Pairing of human resources functions with administrative support services.

In an organisation such as a university, the administrative support services include a very

(2) Absence of an autonomous department for human resources functions.

(3) Department is given limited status and role.

(4) Tendency to recruit officers of irrelevant and questionable qualifications.

In conclusion, HRM is an occupation, whose professional contribution is direly required

1.08 Training and Career in Human Resources Management

(1) Training in Human Resources Management

Today, there exist many programmes of training in human resources management at

(2) Career in Human Resources Management

(a) Types of human resources jobs

In our discussion of the functions of human resources management in the following