HUMAN RESOURCE:
This is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing all matters related to employees, who collectively represent one of the most valuable resources in any businesses or organization.
A human resource is one person within a company's overall workforce, with each person lending their skills and talents to the organization to help it succeed. Any person willing to trade their labour, knowledge, or time for compensation in an effort to improve the organization is a human resource. It doesn't matter if they're part-time, full-time, freelance, or contract employees.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
Many great scholars had defined human resource management in different ways and with different words, but the core meaning of the human resource management deals with how to manage people or employees in the organization.
Edwin Flippo defines- Human Resource Management as “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are achieved.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
People oriented
HRM is about people at work both as individuals and a group. It tries to help employees to develop their potential fully. It comprises people-related functions like hiring, training and development, performance appraisal, working environment, etc.
It is an art and a science
The art and science of HRM is indeed very complex. HRM is both the art of managing people by recourse to creative and innovative approaches; it is a science as well because of the precision and rigorous application of theory that is required.
It is pervasive
Development of HRM covers all levels and all categories of people, and management and operational staff. No discrimination is made between any levels or categories. All those who are managers have to perform HRM. It is pervasive also because it is required in every department of the organisation. All kinds of organisations, profit or non- profit making, have to follow HRM.
It is a continuous process
First, it is a process as there are number of functions to be performed in a series, beginning with human resource planning to recruitment to selection, to training to performance appraisal. To be specific, the HRM process includes acquisition (HR planning, recruitment, selection, placement, socialisation), development (training and development, and career development), utilisation (job design, motivation, performance appraisal and reward management), and maintenance (labour relations, employee discipline, grievance handling, welfare, and termination). Second, it is continuous, because HRM is a never-ending process.
Interdisciplinary and fast changing
It is encompassing welfare, manpower, personnel management, and keeps close association with employee and industrial relations. It is multi- disciplinary activity utilising knowledge and inputs from psychology, sociology, economics, etc. It is changing itself in accordance with the changing environment. It has travelled from exploitation of workers to treating them as equal partners in the task.
Focus on results
HRM is performance oriented. It has it focus on results, rather than on rules. It encourages people to give their 100%. It tries to secure the best from people by winning the whole hearted cooperation. It is a process of bringing people and organization together so that the goals of each are met. It is commitment oriented. HRM has the responsibility of building human capital. People are vital for achieving organizational goals. Organizational performance depends on the quality of people and employees.
SCOPE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The scope of HRM is very wide:
The labor or human resource Aspect/ Personnel aspect: this is concerned with manpower planning, recruitment and selection, placement, transfer, promotion, training and development lay-off and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives, productivity etc.
Welfare aspects: this deals with working conditions and amenities such as canteens, rest and lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety, recreation facilities etc.
Industrial relation aspects: this cover union management relation, joint consultation, collective bargaining, grievances and disciplinary procedures, settlement of disputes etc.
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Definition of Personnel Management
According to Flippo, “Personnel management is the planning, organizing, compensation, integration, and maintenance of people for the purpose of contributing to organizational, individual and societal goals.”
According to Brech, “Personnel Management is that part which is primarily concerned with human resource of an organization.”
Nature of Personnel Management
Nature of Personnel management includes the function of employment, development, and compensation- These functions are performed primarily by the personnel management in consultation with other departments.
ü Personnel management is an extension of general management. It is concerned with promoting and stimulating a competent workforce to make their fullest contribution to the concern.
ü Personnel management exists to advise and assists the line managers in personnel matters. Therefore, the personnel department is a staff department of an organization.
ü Personnel management lays emphasize on action rather than making lengthy schedules, plans, and work methods. The problems and grievances of people at work can be solved more effectively through rationale personnel policies.
ü It is based on human orientation. It tries to help the workers to develop their potential fully to the concern.
ü It also motivates the employees through its effective incentive plans so that the employees provide fullest co-operation.
ü Personnel management deals with human resources of a concern. In the context of human resources, it manages both individuals as well as blue- collar workers.
Role of Personnel Manager
Personnel manager is the head of the personnel department. He performs both managerial and operative functions of management.
His role can be summarized as:
ü Personnel manager provides assistance to top management- The top management are the people who decide and frame the primary policies of the concern. All kinds of policies related to personnel or workforce can be framed out effectively by the personnel manager.
ü He advises the line manager as a staff specialist. Personnel manager acts as a staff advisor and assists the line managers in dealing with various personnel matters.
ü “As a counselor, the personnel manager attends problems and grievances of employees and guides them. He tries to solve them in the best of his capacity.
ü Personnel manager acts as a He is a linking pin between management and workers.
ü He acts as a Since he is in direct contact with the employees, he is required to act as a representative of the organization in committees appointed by the government. He represents the company in training programmer.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Human resource management is a new version of personnel management. There is no watertight difference between human resource management and personnel management. However, there are some differences in the following matters:
ü Personnel management is a traditional approach to managing people in the organization. Human resource management is a modern approach to managing people in the organization.
- Personnel management focuses on personnel administration, employee welfare, and labor relation. Human resource management focuses on acquisition, development, motivation, and maintenance of human resources in the organization.
ü Personnel management assumes people as input for achieving the desired output. Human resource management assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving the desired output.
ü Under personnel management, personnel function is undertaken for employee satisfaction. Under human resource management, the administrative function is undertaken for goal achievement.
ü Under personnel management, job design is done on the basis of division of labor. Under human resource management, job design function is done on the basis of group work/teamwork.
ü Under personnel management, employees are provided with less training and development opportunities. Under human resource management, employees are provided with more training and development opportunities.
ü In personnel management, decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulation of the organization. In human resource management, decisions are made collectively after considering employee’s participation, authority, decentralization, competitive environment, etc.
ü Personnel management focuses on increased production and satisfied employees. Human resource management focuses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employee’s participation.
ü Personnel management is concerned with the personnel manager. Human resource management is concerned with all levels of managers from top to bottom.
ü Personnel management is a routine function. Human resource management is a strategic function.
The challenge to HRM
Ulrich (1998) suggests that environmental and contextual changes present a number of competitive challenges to organizations that mean that HR has to be involved in helping to build new capabilities. These comprise:
● Globalization, which requires organizations to move people, ideas, products and information around the world to meet local needs. New and important ingredients must be added to the mix when making strategy: volatile political situations, contentious global trade issues, fluctuating exchange rates and unfamiliar cultures.
● Profitability through growth – the drive for revenue growth means that companies must be creative and innovative and this means encouraging the free flow of information and shared learning among employees.
● Technology – the challenge is to make technology a viable, productive part of the work setting.
● Intellectual capital – this is the source of competitive advantage for organizations. The challenge is to ensure that firms have the capability to find, assimilate, compensate and retain human capital in the shape of the talented individuals they need who can drive a global organization that is both responsive to its customers and ‘the burgeoning opportunities of technology’. They have also to consider how the social capital of the organization – the ways in which people interact – can be developed. Importantly, organizations have to focus on organizational capital – the knowledge they own and how it should be managed.
● Change, change and more change – the greatest challenge companies face is adjusting to – indeed, embracing – non-stop change. They must be able to ‘learn rapidly and continuously, and take on new strategic imperatives faster and more comfortably’