Human Resource Management in Context

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01 Introducing human resource management Sarah Gilmore Learning objectives The main objectives of this chapter are: • to discuss the different meanings of the term ‘human resource management’ (HRM); • to illustrate the diverse work undertaken by the human resources (HR) function; • to introduce some of the early models of HRM and to analyse the reasons for its acceptance and growth, placing HRM’s arrival within a wider economic and political context; • to outline some of the major changes occurring within organizations and to identify the main challenges they pose for people management; • to introduce the six HRM themes and explain how they will work.
1.1 Introduction This book is concerned with human resource management (HRM) and the ways in which organizations manage their employees. This chapter will outline the various meanings of HRM, showing that it can refer to a specifi c functional role carried out by specialist staff , as well as being a particular approach to people management. However, many companies do not have a specialist HRM department, and line managers are given responsibility for carrying out people management activities. This means that the term ‘HRM’ can be wide-ranging in terms of what it involves, who undertakes it, and what it actually means. Section 1.3 highlights some of the activities that the HR function carries out and illustrates the contingent nature of their enactment. For, although all organizations engage in certain people management activities, the ways in which they do so will depend signifi cantly on factors such as the organization’s size, the nature of the company’s business, and the accepted professional and organizational norms as to how this work should be done. This diversity of approach is also refl ected in the diff erent ways the HR function is constituted and the diff erent stances that underpin their attitude towards people management. These diff erent styles are often contrasted as being either ‘personnel management’ or ‘human resource management’, and the diff erences between them are explored both historically and conceptually in Section 1.4. The rise and growth of HRM during the 1980s and 1990s coincided with profound changes to UK organizations and to the ways in which work is organized. Many of the implications of these alterations are still ongoing and will be discussed in Sections 1.5 and 1.6, raising the question as to what these developments mean for the HR function, as well as for the various ways HRM is understood. The latter are explored in Section 1.7, before this chapter is closed with an exploration of Bach’s model (2005) of the ‘new HR’ in Section 1.8. 1.2 HRM themes Each chapter explores six key themes: strategy, performance, commitment, fl exibility, culture, and power. These themes are important in understanding the practice of HRM in contemporary organizations and the relationships these practices have (or might not have) with relevant theory. Their individual importance and inclusion will vary according to the subject matter of the chapter under consideration. However, within this particular chapter, all six are included and are closely integrated with each other. The operation of these themes is often linked to highly contested areas of debate within the HRM milieu and as such will reemerge in diff erent ways throughout the book. The fi rst four chapters show that organizations frequently set themselves challenging business and operational targets. In order to achieve these aims, senior managers often ensure that a strategy is in place in order to give line managers and employees clarity as to the desired outcomes of their work as well as some guidance concerning how these targets should be attained. A key assertion made by many HR practitioners and academics is that business strategies are more achievable if eff ective people management policies and practices are aligned to them. As will be explained, this assertion is one of the cornerstones of HRM’s viability, and the desirability of achieving alignment between strategy, HR practices, and the attainment of business goals has by far the longest pedigree in the many debates about HRM. However, how far are developments in HR practice simply a response to the mounting competitive pressures faced by organizations rather than the result of a strategic choice to adopt them? A crucial means by which organizational goals are achieved is through aligning individual and team performance to them. But how do HR policies and practices contribute here? Is there a clear-cut relationship between the wide range of HR activities and improved performance? Given that line managers often carry out much HR work, eff ective people management is not the sole preserve and concern of the HR function. What, therefore, is their distinctive contribution? For many practitioners and managers, the strategically focused performance outcomes are highly dependent upon securing employee commitment to the organization’s goals. Chapter 1 Introducing human resource management 3
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