WEST CENTRAL COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE INC.

Human Resource Management

Module 1
Learning Objectives:

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Understand the importance of Human Resource Management

2. Identify the different roles of Human Resource Manager

Activity 1.

In a five-sentence paragraph, write your thoughts about Human Resource Management.

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In this Module, you are about to learn the meaning of Human Resource Management
(HRM). As you go along with your readings, internalize the importance of HR. In due time, you will
be prompted to act as one of the HR Managers.

Meaning of Human Resources

Human resources are the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization,
business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge, and skills
which the individual’s command. Similar terms include manpower, labor, personnel, associates or
simply: people.

The human-resources department (HR department) of an organization performs human

resource management, overseeing various aspects of employment, such as compliance with labor law
and employment standards, interviewing, administration of employee benefits, organizing of
employee files with the required documents for future reference, and some aspects of recruitment
(also known as talent acquisition) and employee offboarding.[1] They serve as the link between an
organization's management and its employees.

The duties include planning, recruitment, and selection process, posting job ads, evaluating the
performance of employees, organizing resumes and job applications, scheduling interviews and
assisting in the process and ensuring background checks. Another job is payroll and benefits
administration which deals with ensuring vacation and sick time are accounted for, reviewing payroll,
and participating in benefits tasks, like claim resolutions, reconciling benefits statements, and
approving invoices for payment.[2] HR also coordinates employee relations activities and programs
including but not limited to employee counseling.[3] The last job is regular maintenance, this job
makes sure that the current HR files and databases are up to date, maintaining employee benefits and
employment status and performing payroll/benefit-related reconciliations.

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Meaning of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management (HRM, or sometimes abbreviated to HR) is concerned with all
aspects of how people are employed and managed in organizations.

The term HRM has largely taken over from that of personnel management, which took over
from previous terminology including labor or welfare management. In the 1980s, against a backdrop
of economic recession and increased pressures on firms because of globalization and the accelerated
pace of change brought about by technological developments, a number of academics began to think
about people in organizations from a different perspective. A combination of this thinking evolved
into what became known as human resource management.

There are many definitions of human resource management of varying degrees of complexity.
Two of the more meaningful are:

Human resource management is a strategic, integrated, and coherent approach to the

employment, development and well-being of the people working in organizations (Armstrong, 2016)

Human resource management is the process through which management builds the workforce
and tries to create the human performances that the organization needs. (Boxall and Purcell, 2016)

These definitions point to some of the key characteristics of HRM as identified by Armstrong
(2008):

• The diversity of HRM: It is difficult to identify universal characteristics of HRM. Many

models exist and practices vary across organizations, often corresponding to the
conceptual version of HRM in only a few respects.

• The strategic nature of HRM: Perhaps the most significant feature of HRM is the
importance attached to strategic integration. This requires that HR planning be
consistent with organization planning more generally.

• The commitment-orientated nature of HRM: The notions of mutuality and high

commitment underpin HRM. If all involved in an organization perceive themselves to be
engaged in a mutual endeavor, they are likely to be more committed and consequently
to perform at a higher level.

• People and their talents regarded as ‘human capital’: One of the original academic
underpinnings of HRM is the notion that people, and their collective skills, abilities and
experiences should be regarded as an asset and source of competitive advantage rather
than a cost.

• Unitarist rather than pluralist, individualist rather than collective in its approach to
employee relations: The theory of HRM contends that employees share the same
interests as employers and emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the
organization and the individual employee rather than any group or representative body.

• HRM as a management-driven activity: Notwithstanding the increase in the number of

HR managers and the size of HR departments, HRM is described by Armstrong
(2008:16) as ‘a central, senior management-driven, strategic activity that is developed,
owned and delivered by management as a whole to promote the interests of their
organization’. In the early days of HRM, Purcell (1993) described it as the rediscovery of
management prerogative and Guest (1991) said that ‘HRM is too important to be left to

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personnel managers. More recently there has been considerable emphasis on the role of
line managers in delivering on the objectives of HRM.

• An emphasis on the needs of the organization and business goals and values: The
concept of HRM has been largely based on a management and business orientated
philosophy. While the interests of the members of the organization are recognized they
are subordinated to those of the organization. However, in this area the theory of HRM
is evolving. While clearly HR needs to support the achievement of organization
objectives, there is a growing body of opinion that there needs to be more to HRM than
that. In particular, HR needs to have regard for the interests of all stakeholders and the
values and standards that society expects to be upheld in the workplace.

When the term HRM first became popular there was criticism of it as it referred to people as
resources, as if they were any other factor of production to be leveraged into economic value.
However, Boxall and Purcell (2016:4) regard this as a misunderstanding of the term. They suggest
that it is not people that are referred to as ‘human resources’, rather their knowledge, skills and
energies which they use in their daily roles: ‘People are not human resources. On the contrary, people
are independent agents who possess human resources, which are the talents they can deploy and
develop at work and which they take with them when they leave the organization’ (authors’
emphases). However, the authors add that referring to people as human resources is ‘a mistake made
in a variety of textbooks and dictionaries.

HRM has also been widely criticized for reasons beyond its terminology. The main reservations
are summed up by Armstrong and Taylor (2015:8) as ‘HRM promises more than it delivers, and its
morality is suspect’. In respect of the first point HRM has been variously (and contradictorily)
described as overly prescriptive, uncertain, imprecise and simplistic. In respect of the second point, it
has been claimed that HR overemphasizes business needs and that it is manipulative in seeking to
shape human behavior at work.

However, much of the criticism has subsided. According to Armstrong (2016:5) this is because
‘HRM is no longer governed by the original philosophy – if it ever was. According to Storey (2007:6),
HRM ‘in its generic, broad and popular sense simply refers to the system of people management’ that
pertains in an organization. Elsewhere Armstrong comments (2016:10), ‘HRM is here to stay, even if
it is applied diversely or only used as a label to describe traditional personnel management
practices…HRM has largely become something that organizations do rather than an aspiration or a
philosophy, and the term is generally in use as a way of describing the process of managing people’.

Conceptual Framework of HRM

The conceptual framework of HRM The question of how to achieve competitive advantage is
the dominant concern of strategic management. In the 1980s this came to particular prominence
through the research of Michael Porter. A related economic theory, the resource-based view, which re-
emerged at this time holds that competitive advantage is achieved if a firm’s resources are valuable,
rare and costly to imitate. Both these theories impacted on thinking in respect of people management
in organizations. Firstly, approaches and initiatives in respect of people management should be
consistent with the overall strategy of the organization (Fombrun et al, 1984) and secondly, that all
resources, but human resources, contribute to the unique character of organizations and can therefore
support competitive advantage. This led to a recognition of people and investment in them as a source
of ‘human capital advantage’ (Boxall and Purcell, 2016) rather than a cost to be minimized as much as
possible.

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The other side of the HRM concept emerged from organization behavior theory. Organization
behavior (OB) is the study of how organizations function and how people behave in them. In other
words, the interface between human behavior and the organization and how this impacts on the
performance of the organization. Areas of concern for HRM, including organization design,
organization culture and leadership all have their roots in OB. However, most critical to the original
concept of HRM are the areas of employee commitment and motivation, more recently described
under the ‘catch-all’ term of employee engagement.

The goals of HRM:

Drawing on the original theory, Armstrong and Taylor (2015) identify the goals of HRM as to:

• Support the organization in achieving its objectives by developing and implementing

HR strategies that are integrated with business strategy

• Contribute to the development of a high-performance culture

• Ensure that the organization has the talented, skilled, and engaged people it needs

• Create a positive employment relationship between management and employees and a

climate of mutual trust

• Encourage the application of an ethical approach to people management.

Role of HRM

The role of HRM is to plan, develop and administer policies and programs designed to make
optimum use of an organizations human resources. It is that part of management which is concerned
with the people at work and with their relationship within enterprises. Its objectives are: (a) effective
utilization of human resources, (b) desirable working relationships among all members of the
organizations, and (c) maximum individual development. Human resources function as primarily
administrative and professional. HR staff focused on administering benefits and other payroll and
operational functions and didn’t think of themselves as playing a part in the firm’s overall strategy.

HR professionals have an all-encompassing role. They are required to have a thorough

knowledge of the organization and its intricacies and complexities. The ultimate goal of every HR
person should be to develop a linkage between the employee and organization because employee’s
commitment to the organization is crucial.

The first and foremost role of HR personnel is to impart continuous education to the
employees about the changes and challenges facing the country in general and their organization in
particular. The employees should know about the balance sheet of the company, sales progress, and
diversification of plans, share price movements, turnover, and other details about the company. The

HR professionals should impart such knowledge to all employees through small booklets, video
films and lectures.

The primary responsibilities of Human Resource managers are:

• To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies.

• To act as an internal change agent and consultant

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• To initiate change and act as an expert and facilitator

• To actively involved in company’s strategy formulation

• To keep communication line open between the HRD function and individuals and groups
both within and outside the organization.

• To identify and evolve HRD strategies in consonance with overall business strategy.

• To facilitate the development of various organizational teams and their working relationship
with other teams and individuals.

• To try and relate people and work so that the organization objectives are achieved efficiently
and effectively.

• To diagnose problems and determine appropriate solution particularly in the human

resource areas.

• To provide co-ordination and support services for the delivery of HRD programs and services

• To evaluate the impact of an HRD intervention or to conduct research so as to identify,

develop or test how HRD In general has improved individual and organizational performance.

Different management gurus have deliberated different roles for the HR manager based on the
major responsibilities that they full fill in the organization. Few of the commonly accepted models are
enumerated below.

Pat Mc Lagan has suggested nine roles that are played by HR practitioners.

1. To bring the issues and trends concerning an organization’s external and internal people to
the attention of strategic decision makers and to recommend long term strategies to support
organizational excellence and endurance.

2. To design and prepare HR systems and actions for implementation so that they can produce
maximum impact on organizational performance and development.

3. To facilitate the development and implementation of strategies for transforming one’s own
organization by pursuing values and visions.

4. To create a positive relationship with the customer’s by providing them with the best
services; to utilize the resources to the maximum and to create commitment among the people
who help the organization to meet the customers’ needs whether directly connected or
indirectly connected to the organization.

5. To identify the learning needs hence to design and develop structured learning programs,
and materials to help accelerate learning for individuals and groups.

6. To enable the individuals and groups to work in new situations and to expend and change
their views so that people in power move from authoritarian to participative models of
leadership.

7. To help employees to assess their competencies, values and goals so that they can identify,
plan and implement development plans.

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8. He also assists the individual employee to add values in the workplace and to focus on the
interventions and interpersonal skills for helping people change and sustain change.

9. He assesses the HRD practices and programs and their impact and to communicate results
so that the organization and its people accelerate their change and development.

According to Dave Ulrich HR play’s four key roles.

1. Strategic Partner Role-turning strategy into results by building organizations that create
value.

2. Change Agent Role- making change happen, and in particular, help it happen fast

3. Employees Champion Role—managing the talent or the intellectual capital within a firm.

4. Administrative Role—trying to get things to happen better, faster, and cheaper.

The role HR in organizations has undergone an extensive change and many organizations have
gradually oriented themselves from the traditional personnel management to a human resources
management approach.

The basic approach of HRM is to perceive the organization as a whole. Its emphasis is not only
on production and productivity but also on the quality of life. It seeks to achieve the paramount
development of human resources and the utmost possible socio-economic development.

As you are about to finish this module, let us have an activity to ensure that you were able to
gain some nuggets of wisdom. Kindly answer the following activity.

Activity 2:

Read and understand the given term.

Write W if the item is related to a.

Write C if the item is related to b.
Write A if the item is related to both.
Write S if the item is not related to both.

______ 1. Management
a. Supervising
b. Controlling
______2. Human Resource
a. Equipment
b. Personnel
______3. Human Resource Management
a. Strategic approach
b. Maximize employees’ performance
______4. Goals of HRM
a. To act as an internal change agent and consultant.
b. To develop a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies.
______5. Strategic Partner Role
a. Turning strategy into results by building organizations that create value.
b. Trying to get things to happen better, faster, and cheaper.

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Assessment:
In not less than 100 words, profound how you perceived the importance of understanding the
role of Human Resource Management.

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Congratulations for a job well done!

Source: : Introduction to Human Resource Management

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