Introduction to Human Resource Management:

Personnel Administration

• Human Resources:
- Used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the
department responsible for managing all matters related to employees.

- First coined in the 1960s when the value of labor relations began to garner attention and
when notions such as motivation, organizational behavior, and selection assessments
began to take shape in all types of work settings.

• Human: refers to the skilled workforce in an org.

• Resource: refers to limited availability of scarce.
• Management: refers to how to optimize and make the best use of such limited or scarce
resources to meet the organization’s goals and objectives.

• Importance of Human Resource Management:

- There is a human mind effort and man-hours (working hours). No product or service can
be produced without the help of a human being. A human being is a fundamental
resource for making or constructing anything every organization desires to have skilled
and competent people to make their organization competent and best.

- Among the 5 M’s of management, i.e. men, money, machines, materials, and methods.
HRM deals about the 1st M, Men, not easy to manage, “every man is different from
other” and they are different from the other M's in the sense that men possess the power
to manipulate the other M's. Whereas the other M's are either lifeless or abstract and as
such, do not have the power to think and decide what is good for them.

• HRM focused on major areas:

1. Recruiting and Staffing

2. Compensation and Benefits
3. Training and Learning
4. Labor and Employee Relations
5. Organization Development
• Frederick W. Taylor
- “Father of Scientific Management,” played a role in the development of the personnel
function in the early 1900s.
- Advocated the “scientific" selection and training of workers.
- Pioneered incentive systems that rewarded workers for meeting and/or exceeding
performance standards.
- Proposed that by optimizing and simplifying jobs, productivity would increase.
- Promoted the idea of "A Fair Day's Pay for A Fair Day's Work.” If a worker did not
achieve enough in a day, he did not deserve to be paid as much as another highly
productive worker.

• Robert Owen
- creator and originator for introducing reforms for workers in his own Lanark Cotton
Mills.
- He created a principle of “8 hours day work, 8 hours rest and 8 hours sleep.”
- Identified the importance of letter working conditions at the workplace and their impact
on the productivity and efficiency of the workers.
- He is the “Father of Personnel Management.”
- 1817, he formulated the goal of the 8 hours day and coined the slogan: ‘8 hours Labor, 8
hours Recreation, and 8 hours rest’. Employers found that when employee working hours
dropped from 10 or 12 to 8 hours per day, there was no drop off in productivity or
production.

• 1927-32, The Hawthorne Studies

* Elton Mayo
- Measured the relationship between productivity and the work environment.
- He is the "Father of Human Relations.”

• 1929, Great Depression

- It changed the rules of business old-age pensions, labor standards, and minimum wages
for some industries were institutes.

• Hawthorne Effect
- Refers to a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in
response to their awareness of being observed.
- The term was coined in 1958 by Henry A. Landsberger.
- When workers know people are concerned about them, their productivity increases.
• Great Quotations of an HR:
"Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don't have
to.” – Sir Richard Branson.

• Approaches to Human Resource Management:

1. Strategic Approach
- People are the strategic asset of an organization.
- People have core competencies, the basis of competitive advantage.
- Hunan resources are the combination of talent and skills, some of them are inborn
and other skills they have acquired through learning and education.
- Focuses on people management programs and long-term solutions.
- stresses organizational development interventions achieving employee
organizational fit and other aspects that ensure employees add value to the
organization.

2. Management Approach
- HRM is part of general management.
- Management is nothing but managing people in the workplace. Managers at all
levels are responsible for managing their employees or subordinates.

3. Human Resource Approach

- People are human beings with a lot of potential and intellectual abilities. It is
important to treat people with respect and dignity.

4. Commodity Approach
- They are viewed as a cog of a machine. People can be hired and fired through
money. It is money that matters most. "Money is sweeter than honey." This
approach views people as economic men.

5. Proactive Approach
- HR managers must anticipate the challenges of problems before they arise.
"Prevention is better than cure".

6. Reactive Approach
- It occurs when decision-makers respond to problems. If efforts are reactive only,
problems may be compounded, opportunities may be missed, and organizations
may suffer loss.

7. System Approach
- A set of interrelated but separate elements or parts working together for a
common goal. Example: HRM is a system that may have parts such as
procurement, training, performance appraisal and reward, etc. One part affects
and is affected by the other.
• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
- It is a right every job applicant has throughout a living process. It refers to the protection
job candidates have against discrimination based on their race, religion, sex, or national
origin, among other qualified characteristics. Employers may not judge or decide a person's
suitability for a job on any of these bases. EFO covers current employees against
discrimination for promotions, pay, benefits or discharge.