What is Human Resource Management? - In 1937 Ronald Coase, a Noble Prize winning economist, explained how some economic activities are most efficiently coordinated within firms, while others are most efficiently coordinated by markets. ‘Management’ can therefore be defined as the art and science of coordinating activities within a firm, via a process of managerial decision-making, including areas such as finance, operations, sales and marketing, and human resources.
For more than a century now, human resource management, as a discipline and practice in the management of people in an organization, has evolved and developed into different areas. These disciplines and practices have gone through a process of trial and error, theory building and testing of various concepts by practicing managers and academics (Farnham & Pimlott 1979; Storey 1989; Armstrong 1995). The underlying forces behind the evolution and development of human resource management have been (and still are) mainly environmental, and the quest for knowledge of better ways of acquiring and utilizing labor.
HR management can in turn be defined as:
‘The process of analyzing and managing an organization’s human resource needs to ensure satisfaction of its strategic objectives’ (Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum and Staude, 2009)
And also to answer what is human resource management, HR management defined as:
‘The policies and practices involved in carrying out the “people” or human resources aspects of a management position, including recruitment, screening, training and appraising’ (Dessler, 2007).
Important themes to note in these definitions, which will be picked up again during the course of the subject guide, are:
The history of HR management can be dated back to the 19th century, when some enlightened industrial companies in the US and Europe employed welfare officers to look after the wellbeing of workers, especially women and children. In the 1920s and 1930s companies employed labor managers to handle pay, absence, recruitment and dismissal. By the late 1940s labor management and welfare work had been integrated under the banner of ‘personnel administration’. As the importance of people to the success of firms was increasingly recognized throughout the 1970s and 1980s, personnel administration became ‘personnel management’ and eventually ‘human resource management’. Today some companies refer simply to the ‘people’ function and call their most senior HR executive the ‘chief people officer’. That’s short explanations about what is human resource management.
Read also: Challenges of HRM in Global Environment
For more than a century now, human resource management, as a discipline and practice in the management of people in an organization, has evolved and developed into different areas. These disciplines and practices have gone through a process of trial and error, theory building and testing of various concepts by practicing managers and academics (Farnham & Pimlott 1979; Storey 1989; Armstrong 1995). The underlying forces behind the evolution and development of human resource management have been (and still are) mainly environmental, and the quest for knowledge of better ways of acquiring and utilizing labor.
HR management can in turn be defined as:
‘The process of analyzing and managing an organization’s human resource needs to ensure satisfaction of its strategic objectives’ (Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum and Staude, 2009)
And also to answer what is human resource management, HR management defined as:
‘The policies and practices involved in carrying out the “people” or human resources aspects of a management position, including recruitment, screening, training and appraising’ (Dessler, 2007).
Important themes to note in these definitions, which will be picked up again during the course of the subject guide, are:
- the role of analysis as well as management
- the connection between HRM and achieving an organisation’s strategic goals
- the importance of HR policies and practices; and specific HR activities such as recruitment, selection, learning and education, and
- performance management
The history of HR management can be dated back to the 19th century, when some enlightened industrial companies in the US and Europe employed welfare officers to look after the wellbeing of workers, especially women and children. In the 1920s and 1930s companies employed labor managers to handle pay, absence, recruitment and dismissal. By the late 1940s labor management and welfare work had been integrated under the banner of ‘personnel administration’. As the importance of people to the success of firms was increasingly recognized throughout the 1970s and 1980s, personnel administration became ‘personnel management’ and eventually ‘human resource management’. Today some companies refer simply to the ‘people’ function and call their most senior HR executive the ‘chief people officer’. That’s short explanations about what is human resource management.
Read also: Challenges of HRM in Global Environment