The Evolution of Human Resource Management Essay Example
The Evolution of Human Resource Management Essay Example

The Evolution of Human Resource Management Essay Example

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  • Pages: 6 (1494 words)
  • Published: August 31, 2016
  • Type: Research Paper
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Human resource gained more attention as the workforce is considered to be an important resource to gain the competitive advantage of organization and also it helps in utilizing the resources of an organization to an optimum extent in order to achieve organizational goal. Managing human resources is a complex process. As Harzing and Ruysseveldt said a better way to understand the philosophy of human resource management demands a thorough understanding about the evolution of the concept itself from the ancestral concept of personnel management.

In 1990 due to liberalized government policies of various countries, the human resource started floating from one country to another this led to the diversification of the workforce and cross-culture took place as a result employees from one nation migrating to another nation and bringing their culture with them this led to mixed organization culture so th

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e HR professional has to play major role in coordinating the workforce of a different culture in an organization.

Approaches towards recruitment of staff focused to geocentric from ethnocentric and polycentric which is more efficient because workforce will be selected based on talent regardless of nationality. Method of recruiting also changed towards efficient policies like using of head hunters, cross-national advertising, E-recruitment.

Evolution of Personnel management started in 19th century at that time there was a boom in industrialization which leads to increase in franchising and influence of trade unions and harshness of industrial condition called for the better of industrial condition. There was no department as such for taking care of above problem only welfare officers came into being to take care of above situation.

These welfare officers

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were only women's who take care of protection of women and girls because they feel it as worthy if women employee are sick they visit their home give food accommodation give moral welfare. As the role of women increasing like they were getting employed in modern industries where their work is packing assembly or another routine job so the quality required by these women employees increased so this welfare officer who were women their responsibility also increased that is to recruitment training development.

But ambiguity has been increased due to increase in production and also increased in paternalistic behavior relationship between employer and employee and also aiming at moral protection of women and girls and also side by side the aim of achieving economies of scale is also increased like achieving higher output by minimizing cost by resolving grievances control of sickness these leads to mixed aim of achieving the organizational objective in order to achieve but at that time there was only a handful of welfare officer was their they wanted to improve the condition of working of women in 1900 there was only few welfare officer was there but in 1913 number of welfare officer has been increased to take care of the situation.

The exact growth of personnel management started during First World War because the number of munitions manufactured at a large scale so the number of employees needed to manufacture increased on the other hand the welfare officer also increased by 1300 to take care of employees it also sought the supply of labor to munitions factories as the supply of welfare officer made mandatory by the government.

During war women were recruited at a large scale to fill the gap of men who left the factories to join war which in turn led to dispute labor unions to employ unskilled women.

The title labor manager or employment manager came in the year 1920 in the engineering industry and other industries where the factories were very huge to handle absence, recruitment, queries over the business, and so on. Companies started merger and acquisitions as a strategy to grow in the mid of 19th century. Due to large number of employees employed they created their own specialist personnel department to unify the different policies and manage absence and recruitment with the objective of improving productivity. But this department was mainly concerned with hourly-paid workers. As personnel management existed only in the emerging companies like plastic, chemicals and multiple retails.

But during 1930's the economy started to grow at a rapid pace due to this big corporations came in to existence they feel to improve the value of employee benefits like different kinds of allowances as a measure of retaining the motivating employees. Second World War increased the importance of having personnel department because of producing large war materials the ministry of labor and national services insisted to combine both personnel department and welfare officer work on a full time basis. Again in Second World War, the number of women employees was more to fill the gap left by men who joined the battlefield again re-training proper recruitment took place government saw that there was a huge need to have a personnel department to take care of all employees in well manner.

justify;">As the industrial revolution took place simultaneously the factory system came in to being that lead increase in working rules and regulation to large number to employees, increase in the hierarchical structure also increased in working hours but decreased in pay bad working condition, the social distance between employee and employer has increased, increased bureaucratization all these factor results in increasing monotony boredom job displacement impersonality due to these factor personnel management got higher attention.

As in the Second World War the term employment manager started to take care of women employees the combination of both welfare officers and employment managers leads to personnel management.

Though in the war times the productivity increased due to a number of employment policies undertaken but the role of personnel management during war time was small that to implement the rules demanded to produce large scale goods. But it was not focusing on another aspect of managing human resources that is by motivation, promotion, increasing morale, performance appraisal etc. but the role of negotiation of the union has gain important role. But there was an increase in the bargaining between employers and unions during the pre-world war. But in 1950s and 60s there was an enormous growth in another type of industry which leads to the increasing role of personnel management at the same time large companies wanted to develop their own employment policies which suites to their company which leads to improving emerging new aspect in personnel management.

The bargaining power of unions has increased which resulted in unnecessary official and unofficial strikes which were damaging the economy, particularly the manufacturing industry. In UK the

strikes were in huge number and it became famous in maintain poor industrial relation and the number of working days lost due to strike which resulted in a closer of a number of factories. The situation becoming worse it was critical for both employers and unions. Due to this personnel manager was blamed for lacking of negotiation skill to resolve this situation and plan for industrial relationship strategies because of these deficiencies personnel management was not given high priority these leads to management to think something higher profile which have all the skill to negotiate to motivate.

In the year mid of 1960s organization started giving much importance to employ the personnel specialist to perform different activities in order to make the employees as a whole package to perform in the organization. The world was becoming global village and labour started moving from one country to another. This resulted in managing the workforce diversity. This became the challenge for the personnel management to manage this workforce diversity. In year 1960 even the domestic rules and regulation was increased towards employability. The new legislation was introduces towards employment, training, and redundancy payments, equal pay opportunities, employment protection.

The key success of Japanese companies like Toyota, Matsushita is the practice adopted for efficient management of workforce as these companies started opening its manufacturing plant in western countries. The practice of these companies is also started by western companies. The practice include are:

  • Strict and rigorous selection and recruitment
  •  High level of training
  •  Team working
  •  Multitasking
  • Better communications
  • Use of quality circle and an

emphasis on right first time quality

  • Encouragement of employee suggestions and innovation
  • Single status symbols such as common canteens and corporate uniforms
  • The reason of the above practice is to create an organization atmosphere where workers can grow and identify their own success and goal which match with organization.

    Programs to increase wages and fringe benefits continued to be developed. New studies linked greater productivity to management philosophies that encourage workers' ideas and initiative. Change in labor legislations such as the Equal Pay Act. Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act manifested. The need to comply with such legislation increased the importance of the human resource function. Modern trends will be occurring in HRM like strategic human resource management it is mandatory for every organization to treat all employees in a well manner because they are the assets of an organization which helps in achieving organization goal.

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