1.

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Highlights
a. Concept , objectives and functions of HRM
b. HR system: personnel and HRM
c. HR outcomes: quality of work life, productivity and readiness to change
d. Challenges of HRM

1.1. Concept , objectives and functions of HRM

Concept

HRM is concerned with getting better results with the collaboration of people. It is an
integral but distinctive part of management, concerned with people at work and their
relationships within the enterprise. HRM helps in attaining maximum individual
development, desirable working relationship between employees and employers,
employees and employees, and effective modeling of human resources as contrasted
with physical resources. It is the recruitment, selection, development, utilization,
compensation and motivation of human resources by the organization.

Human Resource Management: Objectives

• To help the organization reach its goals.

• To ensure effective utilization and maximum development of human resources.
• To ensure respect for human beings. To identify and satisfy the needs of individuals.
• To ensure reconciliation of individual goals with those of the organization.
• To achieve and maintain high morale among employees.
• To provide the organization with well-trained and well-motivated employees.
• To increase to the fullest the employee's job satisfaction and self-actualization.
• To develop and maintain a quality of work life.
• To be ethically and socially responsive to the needs of society.
• To develop overall personality of each employee in its multidimensional aspect.
• To enhance employee's capabilities to perform the present job.
• To equip the employees with precision and clarity in trans¬action of business.
• To inculcate the sense of team spirit, team work and inter-team collaboration.

Human Resource Management: Functions

In order to achieve the above objectives, Human Resource Management undertakes the
following activities:
1. Human resource or manpower planning.
2. Recruitment, selection and placement of personnel.
3. Training and development of employees.
4. Appraisal of performance of employees.
5. Taking corrective steps such as transfer from one job to another.
6. Remuneration of employees.
7. Social security and welfare of employees.
8. Setting general and specific management policy for organizational relationship.
9. Collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance handling.
10. Staffing the organization.
11. Aiding in the self-development of employees at all levels.
12. Developing and maintaining motivation for workers by providing incentives.
13. Reviewing and auditing man¬power management in the organization
14. Potential Appraisal. Feedback Counseling.
15. Role Analysis for job occupants.
16. Job Rotation.
17. Quality Circle, Organization development and Quality of Working Life.

1.2. HR system: personnel and HRM

Similarities and differences between HRM and personnel management are given under

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.

 Personnel management is regarded to be more administrative in nature.

Personnel management basically deals with the 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 organization’s
success.
 Human Resources Management is spoken about in a much broader sense than
Personnel Management. It has been said that HRM incorporates and develops
personnel management skills. It is Human Resources Management that develops
a team of employees for an organization.

 Personnel management can be considered as reactive, in the sense that it

provides concerns and demands as they are presented. On the contrary, Human
resources Management can be stated to be proactive, as it pertains to the
continuous development of policies and functions for improving a
company’s workforce.
  Whereas personnel management is independent from an organization, the
Human Resources Management is an integral part of a company or an
organization.

 One can also come across differences in motivational aspects. While Personnel
management tends to motivate the employees with compensations, rewards and
bonuses, Human Resources Management tends to provide motivation through
human resources, effective strategies for facing challenges, work groups, and job
creativity.

 Personnel management focuses on administrating people. On the contrary, the

prime focus of Human Resources Development is to build a dynamic culture.
(http://www.differencebetween.net/business/difference-between-hrm-and-
personnel-management/)

1.3. H R outcomes: quality of work life, productivity and readiness to

change

quality of work life

Concepts of quality of work life have been given by different authors and practices,
which are given below.

Hackman and Taylor (1979 Warr and colleagues Mirvis and Lawler
Oldham (1976 (1979) (1984)

 Skill variety,  individual  work  safe work

power, involvement, environment,
 Task Identity,
 employee  intrinsic job  equitable
 Task participatio motivation, wages,
significance, n in the
managemen  higher order  equal
 Autonomy need strength, employment
and t,
opportunities
 fairness and  perceived and
 Feedback. intrinsic job
equity,
characteristics  opportunities
 social , for
support, advancement
 job .
 use of one’s satisfaction,
present
 skills,  life
satisfaction,
 self
developmen  happiness,
t, and

 a  self-rated
meaningful anxiety
future at
work,

 social
relevance of
the work or
product,

 effect on
extra work
activities.

Baba and Jamal Ellis and Pompli Sirgy et al. (2001)

(1991) (2002)

 job  poor  need

satisfaction, working satisfaction
environmen based on job
 job ts requirements,
involvement,
 resident  need
 work role aggression, satisfaction
ambiguity, based on
 workload, work
 work role innability to
conflict, environment,
deliver
 work role quality of  need
overload, care satisfaction
preferred, based on
 job stress, supervisory
 balance of behaviour,
 organisationa work and
l commitment family,  need
and satisfaction
 shiftwork, based on
 turn-over ancillary
intentions.  lack of
programmes,
 involvemen  organizationa
t in decision l
making, commitment.

 professional
isolation,

 lack of
recognition,

 poor
relationship
s with
supervisor/
peers,

 role conflict,

 lack of
opportunity
to learn new
skills.

Productivity

One most important goal of HRM is increasing productivity. Productivity can be

measured by calculating ratio of output and input. There are various forms of
productivity.

Labor productivity and multi-factor productivity

Labour productivity is the ratio of (the real value of) output to the input of labour.
Where possible, hours worked, rather than the numbers of employees, is used as the
measure of labour input. With an increase in part-time employment, hours worked
provides the more accurate measure of labour input. Labour productivity should be
interpreted very carefully if used as a measure of efficiency. In particular, it reflects
more than just the efficiency or productivity of workers. Labour productivity is the ratio
of output to labour input; and output is influenced by many factors that are outside of
workers' influence, including the nature and amount of capital equipment that is
available, the introduction of new technologies, and management practices.
Multifactor productivity is the ratio of the real value of output to the combined input of
labour and capital. Sometimes this measure is referred to as total factor productivity. In
principle, multifactor productivity is a better indicator of efficiency. It measures how
efficiently and effectively the main factors of production - labour and capital - combine
to generate output. However, in some circumstances, robust measures of capital input
can be hard to find.

Labour productivity and multifactor productivity both increase over the long term.
Usually, the growth in labour productivity exceeds the growth in multifactor
productivity, reflecting the influence of relatively rapid growth of capital on labour
productivity.

At a firm or industry level, the benefits of productivity growth can be distributed in a

number of different ways:

 to the workforce through better wages and conditions;

 to shareholders and superannuation funds through increased profits and
dividend distributions;

 to customers through lower prices;

 to the environment through more stringent environmental protection; and

 to governments through increases in tax payments (which can be used to fund

social and environmental programs).

Readiness to change

The Readiness-to-Change ruler is used to assess a person's willingness or readiness to

change, determine where they are on the continuum between "not prepared to change"
and "already changing", and promote identification and discussion of perceived barriers
to change. The ruler represents a continuum from "not prepared to change" on the left,
to "already changing" on the right.

The Readiness-to-Change ruler can be used as a quick assessment of a person's present

motivational state relative to changing a specific behavior, and can serve as the basis for
motivation-based interventions to elicit behavior change. Readiness to change should be
assessed regarding a very specific activity such as taking medications, following a diet,
or exercising, since persons may differ in their stages of readiness to change for
different behaviors.

Challenges of HR management
The environment faced by HR management is a challenging one; changes are occurring
rapidly across a wide range of issues. A study by the Hudson Institute, entitled
Workforce 2020, has highlighted some of the most important workforce issues. From
that and other sources, it appears that the most prevalent challenges facing HR
management are as follows:
 Economic and technological change
 Workforce availability and quality concerns
 Demographics and diversity issues
 Organizational restructuring

Economic and technological change

A major change is the shift of jobs from manufacturing and agriculture to service
industries and telecommunications. This shift has meant that some organizations have
had to reduce the number of employees, while others have had to attract and retain
employees with different capabilities than previously were needed.

Workforce availability and quality concerns

continuously there are reports by industries and companies facing shortages of

qualified experienced workers. Jobs with extreme supply shortages for several years
have included specialized information systems technicians, physical therapists,
plumbers, air conditioning repair technicians, and many others. Consequently, HR
professionals have faced greater pressures to recruit and train workers.

Demographics and diversity issues

It is more diverse racially, women are in the labor force in much greater numbers than
ever before, and the average age of the workforce is now considerably older than
before. As a result of these demographic shifts, HR management in organizations has
had to adapt to a more varied labor force both externally and internally.

Organizational restructuring

Many organizations have restructured in the past few years in order to become more
competitive. Also, mergers and acquisitions of firms in the same industries have been
made to ensure global competitiveness. The “mega-mergers” in the banking, petroleum,
and telecommunications industries have been very visible, but mergers and acquisitions
of firms in many other industries have increased in recent years.
As part of the organizational changes, many organizations have “rightsized” either by
(1) eliminating layers of managers, (2) closing facilities, (3) merging with other
organizations, or (4) outplacing workers. A common transformation has been to flatten
organizations by removing several layers of management and to improve productivity,
quality, and service while also reducing costs. As a result, jobs are redesigned and
people affected. One of the challenges that HR management faces with organizational
restructuring is dealing with the human consequences of change. The human cost
associated with downsizing has been much discussed in the popular press: a survivor’s
mentality for those who remain, unfulfilled cost savings estimates, loss of loyalty, and
many people looking for new jobs

Reference

Hackman, J. & Oldham, G. (1974). The Job Diagnostic Survey. New Haven: Yale
University.

Taylor, J. C. , Cooper, C.L., and Mumford, E. (1979). The quality of working life in
Western and Eastern Europe. ABP

Warr, P., Cook, J. and Wall, T. (1979). Scales for the measurement of some work
attitudes and aspects of psychological well being. Journal of Occupational
Psychology. 52, 129-148.

Mirvis, P.H. and Lawler, E.E. (1984). Accounting for the Quality of Work Life. Journal of
Occupational Behaviour. 5. 197-212.

Baba, V.V., and Jamal, M. (1991). Routinisation of job context and job content as related
to employees quality of working life: a study of psychiatric nurses. Journal of
organisational behaviour. 12. 379-386.

Ellis, N. & Pompli, A. (2002). Quality of working life for nurses. Canberra:
Commonwealth Dept of Health and Ageing..

Sirgy, M. J., Efraty,, D., Siegel, P & Lee, D. (2001). A new measure of quality of work life
(QWL) based on need satisfaction and spillover theories. Social Indicators
Research, 55, 241-302.