History of HRM

Organizations have many operational functions. HRD is one of the functions that is engaging with the tasks of an organization. In early 70 s there was no division called as Human Resource Department or Division. By that time there was only a division called "Personnel" engaged with the labor related in the organization.

Personnel Management was introduced by the end of 19th century. At that time, this was focused on the welfare of labors in the organizations. According to the tasks they have done, the officers at Personnel Department was called as "Welfare Officers". The special thing was, the employee welfare tasks were done by women at that time.

During the period of 1914-1939, many organizations has showed a quick growth and quick changes in needs and wants of the operations. Therefore the tasks done by women shifted to the men's, because of the complexity of tasks. These officers has called as "Labor managers" at that time.

After Second World War, during the period 1945 - 1979, this has grown up and changed to "Personnel Management", and Personnel Management was focus basically on employee administration and the legislation.

At late 70 s the economic of the world changed gradually and organizations started to consider labors work as an important resource. At the decade of 80 the concept of "Human Resource Management" was started and then it has shown growth gradually in decade of 1990. Finally the tasks and operations of personnel management was shifted to the Human Resource Management and it is functioning now in broad way in the organizations than Personnel Management.

HRM vs Personnel management Some say that there are no basic differences between Human Resource Management and Personnel management. These experts say that the two terms HRM and Personnel management have no difference in their meaning, and can be used interchangeably. Well, there are many experts who have come up with many differences between the two. 1. Personnel management deals with employees, their payroll and employment laws. On the other hand, Human Resources Management deals with the management of the work force, and contributes to an organizations success. 2. HRM basically deals with developing personnel management skills. It is Human Resources Management that develops a team of employees for an organization. 3. While Personnel management is considered to be reactive, Human Resources Management is stated to be proactive. 4. Personnel management focuses on administrating people or employees. On the other hand, the prime focus of Human Resources Development is to build a dynamic culture. 5. Personnel management is independent from an organization. On the contrary, Human Resources Management forms an integral part of a company or an organization.