Human Resource Theories

Frances Ann A. Samson

University of the Philippines
Basic Definition of Human Resource
Management

Human resource management (HRM) is the process of

employing people, training them, compensating them,
developing policies relating to them, and developing
strategies to retain them.
Historical Development of Organizational Theories up
to HRM
Period Concept/Theory School
Proponets
Prior to 1920 Classical School / Scientific Taylor, Fayol, Gilbreth, Brech, Gantt

1920’s Bureaucracy Weber, Sheldon, Fisler

1930’2 Neo-Classical/ Human Mayo. Maslow, Follet, Banard, Mc

Relations / Behavior School
1960’s Systems / Contingency
1980’s HRM / HRM Theories
Gregor, Herzberg
Burns and Stalkar, Woodward, Katz
and Khan, Lawrence
Beer et.al, Arthur, Huselid,
MacDuffie, Guest, Schular and
Jackson, Gomez-Mejia and Balkin

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in
 Strong Trade Government Regulated
Unions Employment

Individualized
approach to
employment Lacks
framework
Developing
Countries

Informal and Grey

Job Markets
Comparative HRM

“Originally contained within the emerging study of international

human resource management, it has in recent years developed
into an independent area in its own right.”

“Comparative HRM … insists that human resource management

practices are best understood as a societal phenomena, shaped by
the institutional, cultural and political contexts of their
occurrence.”

~ Peltonen and Vaara, 2017

“Comparative HRM seeks to understand individual national contexts
and the way in which HRM is organized in each particular country. It is
not interested in the discovery of general laws and casual
mechanisms in HRM, but in gaining sensitivity for the locally
contingent circumstances surrounding the particular forms and
approaches to labour management.”
~ Brewster, 2007

“Comparative HRM seeks to develop new theories and understandings

in HRM outcomes without any strong comment to priori models and
theories of HRM. It is inductive rather than deductive in its
methodology.”

~ Peltonen and Vaara, 2017

Globalization Effect on Human
Resource

“The spread of the individualized, market-based employment

systems is one of the key interests in comparative HRM. The rise of
contingent work, flexible working patters and new organizational
forms are manifestations of what is called ‘culture of new
capitalism.”

~ Sennett (1998, 2006)

“The assumption that an employee is committed to one
corporation for the whole of his life is no longer
instead,
valid; workers are
left largely to rely on their own devices as free agents seeking jobs
in the constantly changing economic situations.Employees are
treated as entrepreneurs, who are responsible for their own
employment.”
~ Peltonen and Vaara, 2017
Causes of Employment Shift
1. Major economic crisis all over the world
2. Technology and Internet of things
3. Global capitalism
4. International agreements / treaties
Critical Management Studies

“The advances in modern people management techniques have

not delivered autonomy and self-fulfillment for the employees of
the modern corporation, but, instead have sedimented and
intensified the clash between the capitalist interest and the
working conditions of organizational labour.”

~ Braveman, 1974
 Postmodernist /
Labor Process
Critical Theory Poststructuralist
Theory
Theories

Materialist Focuses on
Focuses on the one
approach to the uncovering
dimensionality of
structuring of techniques and
our cultural beliefs
organizational relations of power
and in the ways
hierarchies under implicit in the
which ideological
the forces of late constitution of
constructions serve
capitalism organizational
the interest of the
objects and
powerful.
subjects

~ Peltonen and Vaara, 2017

 Global Labor Process Theory

The application of the main tenets of labour process theory to the

globalizing economy and working life x x x focus on nation-states
and their organization and management of work in an explicitly
global or transnational look.

DOWNSIZING & RESTRUCTURING

The GLPT research is particularly interested in analyzing whether
there is an emerging convergence of employment management
practices and organizational forms.
The focus is on the adoption of neo-
Fordist and neo-Taylorist HRM practices that manifest the
intensification of managerial controls.

~ Peltonen and Vaara, 2017

Japanese
Corporatio
ns Research show signs of
movement towards
Anglo-American model
• Lifetime employment of individualized
• Strong Corporate employment terms and
flatter hierarchies.
Culture
Restructurings have led
• Seniority Based to redundancies and
Hierarchy early retirement
arrangements.

~ Morris, Hassard, McCann, 2006

 UK Middle
Managers

• Increased workload and pace of change

• Cut down in workforce [including middle management] 
demanding for longer working hours, intensifying
monitoring, tightening of competition over the shrinking
vacancies at the top management level.
• Constant re-skilling of the individual of competencies of
employees
• Serious cases of stress and even deep burnout

~ McCann and Hassard, 2008

HRM Theories of Compensation

Reinforcement and Expectancy Theory

Agency Theory

Equity Theory
95K/mo. 537K/mo.
Reinforcement and Expectancy
Theory
REINFORCEMENT
THEORY
his theory is based on the
assumption that, he reward-
earning behavior is likely to be
repeated.
EXPECTANCY
THEORY
The employee is motivated to do a
particular thing for which he is sure
or is expected that performance
will be followed by a definite
reward or an outcome.
~ https://businessjargons.com
Agency Theory

This theory states that both the employer and the employee are
the stakeholders of the company, and the remuneration paid to the
employee is the agency cost. The employee will try to get an
increased agency cost whereas the employer will try to minimize it.
Hence, the remuneration should be decided in such a way that the
interest of both the parties can be aligned.

~ https://businessjargons.com
Equity Theory

There should be equity or the uniformity in the pay structure of an

employee’s remuneration. If the employee feels he is not being
paid fairly for the amount of work he does in a day will result in
lower productivity, increased turnover and high absenteeism. 

INTERNAL EQUITY EXTERNAL EQUITY INDIVIDUAL EQUITY

he must feel that pay for he must feel that his pay is he must feel that individual
different kinds of jobs relatively within industry pay is differentiated by a
within the company is fair. standards. rational matrix.

~ https://businessjargons.com
HRM
Theories
of
Motivatio
n
 MOTIATION ENGAGEMENT
 The will to do something. Active agreement to do
something for someone.
  Brunei, Burma (Myanmar),
Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

China, Hong Kong, Macau,

Japan, North Korea, South
Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan.
 Clayton Adlerfer ERG Theory

Grow needs

Regression / frustration Progression / growth / development

Relatedness needs

Regression / frustration Progression / growth / development

Existence needs
 Edwin Locke Goal Setting Theory
The willingness to work towards attainment of goal is main source of job motivation

Specific and clear goals lead to

Clarity greater output and better
If a goal is especially performance. 
complex, make sure
you give yourself
enough time to This gives an individual a
Task
overcome the Challenge feeling of pride and
Complexity
learning curve triumph when he attains
involved in Goal them, and sets him up for
completing the task. Setting attainment of next goal.
Principles

Feedback is a means of
The individual establish a
gaining reputation,
sense of commitment in
making clarifications and Feedback Commitment
attaining the goal and
regulating goal
wont abandon it
difficulties.
References

1. McCann, L., Morris, J., & Hassard, J. Middle Managers, The New Organizational
Ideology and Corporate Restructuring: Comparing Japanese and Anglo-American
Management, 2004
2. McCann, L., Morris, J., & Hassard, J. Normalized Intensity: The New Labour Process
of Middle Management, 2008
3. Vaara, E., & Peltonen, T. Critical Approaches to Comparative HRM, 2017
4. Welbourne, T. & Cyr, L. Agency Theory Implications for Strategic Human Resource
Management: Effects of CEO Ownership, Administrative HRM, and Incentive
Alignment on Firm Performance, 1996
5. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in
6. www.toolshero.com