Scope and nature of HRM

1. Managing People
Scope and nature of HRM
Tejinder Pal Singh

2. Module Aim
• Develop a critical approach to the study of PM
• Recognize the complexity of PM, particularly, in
different organisational and social contexts
• Understand contemporary perspectives on
leadership, management and HRM/D.
• Identify alternative perspectives on change and
how change is managed in different
organisational settings.
• Examine particular practices of human HRM/D
from different perspectives.

3. Learning Outcomes
• Review and critically evaluate major contemporary
research and debates in the fields HRM and HRD.
• Evaluate major theories relating to the management of
people in organisations such as alienation, motivation,
commitment and engagement at work and how these are
put into practice by organisations.
• Debate and critically evaluate the management and
leadership of people in organisations
• Understand change & how it is managed in organisations.
• Critically discuss the aims, objectives practices &
contributions of the HRM/D
• Promote professionalism and an ethical approach to HRM
and HRD practice in organisations.

4. Module Structure
• Lectures ?
• Tutor-led seminars – learning activities
– discussions, debates
– small group work and
– exercises, case studies.
• Independent research and private study
• reflection upon seminar & work experience

5. Study Material
• Textbooks
• Journal Articles
• On-line Resources

6. Texts
There is a range of available texts on PM & D.
• Rees, G. & French, R. [2010] Leading,
Managing and Developing People. 3rd
. Edition.
CIPD.
• Rigg, C., Stewart, J., Trehan, K. [2007] Critical
Human Resource Development. Pearson
Education Ltd.

7. Other popular textbooks
• Storey, J. (ed). (2007) Human resource
management: a critical text. London:
Thomson;
• Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T. (eds). (2010)
Human resource management: a
contemporary approach. Harlow: Financial
Times Prentice Hall.

8. Evolution
• PM – Establishing, maintaining and
developing systems which provide
framework for employment.
• Welfare Personnel – 1900
• Personnel Administration -1930
• Personnel Management 1940- 50s
• Personnel Management- IR-1960- 70s
• Entrepreneurial phase 1980s
• Rise of HRM – 1980s

9. Rise of HRM
• Shift in personnel function in its emphasis
(Hunt 1984)
– From adversarial IR of the 70s - to achieving
excellence through committed workforce
– In Search of Excellence (Tom Peter,
Waterman)
– Performance management
– Enterprise culture, market economy

10. HRM
• Believes
– It is important to communicate with the
employees
– To involve them in what is going on
– To foster commitment and identification with
organisation
– A strategic and identification with the
organisation
– A strategic approach to acquisition,
management and motivation of people.

11. HRM – later phase
• Team work
• Empowerment
• Continuous Development
• Competence
• Redundancy/ downsizing
• Culture management, performance - PRP

12. Traditional view of PM
• Management policies for employment
relationship and maintaining suitable
organisation
– Collective bargaining
– Staffing and organisation
– Development and training
– Incentive schemes
– Reviewing and auditing manpower
– IR research

13. Personnel management
• PM was often a matter of ‘collecting
together such odd jobs from management
as they are prepare to give up’
» Crichton(1968, PM in Context)
• Reactive rather than proactive
• Personnel policy and practice divorced
from the strategy of the business

14. Personnel Management
• PM is ‘a collection of incidental techniques
without much internal cohesion’
– Partly as file office clerk
– Partly a housekeeping job
– Partly a social worker’s job
– Partly ‘fire fighting’
» Drucker (1955, The Practice of management)

15. HRM
• A method of maximising economic return from
labour resource by integrating HRM in Business
Strategy
» Kennoy, 1990
• A strategic , coherent and comprehensive
approach to the M&D of the organisation’s HRs
in which every aspect of that process is wholly
integrated within the overall management of the
organisation. HRM is essentially an ideology.
» Armstrong , 1992

16. HRM
• A diverse body of thought and practice, loosely
unified by the concern to integrate the
management of the personnel more closely with
the core management activity of organisation
» Gross, 1994
• HRM is a distinctive approach to employment
management which seeks to achieve CA through
the strategic development of a highly committed
and capable workforce, using an integrated array
of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.
» Storey, 1995

17. Difference between PM and HRM
Storey’s model of HRM
• Pluralist – Unitarist
• Norms and customs- values & mission
• Written contract – beyond contract
• Labour management- customer
• Piecemeal , adhoc – integrated
• Marginal to corporate plan – central
• Managers- leaders
• Indirect – direct communication
• Negotiation skills – facilitation skills
• Collective – individual contract
• Division of labour – teamwork
• Rules and regulation - culture

18. Perceptions of HRM
• People management
• Commitment, Performance, Leadership,
Teambuilding
• Personnel Management
• Appraisal, Recruitment, Selection methods,
Development
• Strategic Management
• Strategic Planning, Performance Management,
Development, managing change

19. What do HRM professionals do?
Planning
Staffing
Evaluating
Developing
Motivating
Managing relationships
Managing change
HRM Functions

20. Cultural
forcesEconomic
forces
Political
forces
Organisation
structure
Mission and
Strategy
Human
resource
management
Michigan Model of HRMMichigan Model of HRM
Strategic management and environmental pressures
Fombrun, Tichy & Devanna

21. Michigan Model of HRM
PerformanceSelection Appraisal
Rewards
Development
The human resource cycle

22. Harvard Model of HRMHarvard Model of HRM
EmployeeEmployee
influenceinfluence
Work system
Human resource flow Rewards
Human Resource System

23. Harvard Model of HRMHarvard Model of HRM
A map of the HRM territory
Stakeholder
Interest
Stakeholders
Management
Employee groups
Government
Community
Unions
HRM Policy
Choices
Employee Influence
Human resource flow
Reward systems
Work systems
Situational
Factors
Work force
characteristics
Business strategy
and conditions
Management
philosophy
Labour market
Unions
Task technology
Laws and
societal values
Long-term
Consequences
Individual
well-being
Organisational
effectiveness
Societal
well-being
HR Outcomes
Commitment
Competence
Congruence
Cost-effectiveness
Beer et al

24. ‘Human’ implies it has something to do with people; ‘management’
places it in the domain of business and organisation; but ‘resource’ is a
highly ambiguous concept which many people find difficult to relate to.
Take the following letter to The Scotsman newspaper:
Sir,
While visiting a patient in Edinburgh’s Western General hospital, I
was shocked to see a six-foot long board with large letters
proclaiming: HUMAN RESOURCES. This distinguishes people who
work in the hospital - doctors, nurses, porters, office workers,
painters, managers - from other resources such as computers, laser
beams, toilet rolls, refuse bins, beds etc
If these human resources are ill, are they labelled ‘out of order’ or
‘broken down’ and when being treated, are they being repaired? Are
babies listed as ‘in process of being manufactured’ with an expected
date when they will be operational? Are old and dead people ‘non-
usable human resources’ or can they be listed as ‘replacement parts’?
When we define humans as resources, we are in danger of
forgetting that we are dealing with people!’
(quoted in Bennis 1990)

25. Group Work
• Critically discuss the role of HRM
in achieving competitive
advantage.

26. HRM -hard or soft?
Hard: Human RESOURCE Management
• aligning business and HR strategies
• people as an economic factor (cost) to be
controlled
Soft: HUMAN Resource Management
• training and development
• commitment strategies

27. Two key alternative HR
principles
Direct control/low
commitment
• employees given
little discretion,
closely supervised
and motivated
• limited
‘psychological’
commitment sought
from employees
Indirect control/high
commitment
• employee’s
‘empowered’ -
encouraged to use
discretion
• high ‘psychological’
commitment sought
from employees

28. Walton 1985 (US)
• Success depends on securing
commitment from people, not controlling
them

29. The Guest model of HRM

30. Peters and Waterman -1982
Eight characteristics
• Bias for action
• Close to customer
• Autonomy and entrepreneurship
• Productivity through people
• Hands on value driven
• Stick to knitting
• Simple form, lean staff
• Simultaneous loose tight properties.

31. Is there one best way of
managing people?
Universal approach, e.g. Pfeffer (1998)
His HR strategy has 7 elements:
– Employment security
– Careful hiring – right people
– Extensive use of self managed teams; Decentralisation
– High pay contingent on org. performance
– Extensive training
– Low status distinctions
– Extensive sharing of information

32. Universalists cont’d
• Huselid (1995)
• Ichniowski (1999)
• HPWS include a focus on skill formation, work
structuring, performance management, pay
satisfaction job flexibility and minimal status
differential
Studies like these show a positive
association between firm performance
and the adoption of HPWS

33. Or, does the HR strategy depend
on what firms do?
• Contingent approach
• E.g. would you use the same methods
with, say, the civil service as you would
with, say, McDonalds?

34. Or, does the HR strategy depend
on what firms do?
• Contingent approach
• E.g. would you use the same methods
with, say, the civil service as you would
with, say, McDonalds?

35. Is There a “One Best HR Way”?
• HRM is contingent on the companies special
situation (strategy, life cycle, products etc.) –
Wright & Snell, 1998;
• But: All companies can benefit from
– Employee motivation and commitment
– Results oriented appraisals and compensation
– Well trained staff
– Foster good relationships and communication
– Professional global executives
• Sectoral differences – Guest (2001) – HPWP effective
in Manufacturing rather than in services.

36. Contingent upon what?
1 Product market strategy
• E.g. Porter (1980) – cost leadership,
differentiation and focus
• Miles & Snow (1984) – defender,
prospector and analyser
• Schuler and Jackson (1987) – cost
reduction, quality enhancement,
innovation

37. Perceptions of HRM
• People management
• Commitment, Performance, Leadership,
Teambuilding
• Personnel Management
• Appraisal, Recruitment, Selection methods,
Development
• Strategic Management
• Strategic Planning, Performance Management,
Development, managing change

38. Dave Ulrich’s Role Model.1997

39. HRM MODELS: TYSON AND FELL
Clerk of works
HR activities are largely routine: employment
and day-to-day administration. Policies are short
term and ad hoc.
Contracts manager
The HR department will use fairly sophisticated
systems. The HR manager is likely to be a
professional or very experienced in industrial
relations but will not be on the board and will act
mainly in an interpretative, not a creative or
innovative, role.
Architect
HR policies exist as part of the corporate
strategy. Human resource planning and
development are important concepts and a long
term view is taken. The head of HR is probably
on the board with power derived from
professionalism and contribution to the
business.
Source: Tyson S and Fell A (1996) Evaluating the Personnel Function, Hutchinson

40. HRM MODELS: STOREY
Strategic
Non-interventionaryInterventionary
Tactical
Change makers Advisers
Regulators Handmaidens
Source: Storey J (1992) New Developments in the Management of Human Resources, Blackwell
• Change makers (interventionary/strategic) that are close to the HRM model.
• Advisers (non-interventionary/strategic) who act as internal consultants, leaving much of HR practice to
line managers.
• Regulators (interventionary/tactical) who are ‘managers of discontent’ concerned with formulating and
monitoring employment rules.
• Handmaidens (non-interventionary/tactical) who merely provide a service to meet the needs of line managers.

41. 1. Change champions who envision, lead or implement strategic change.
2. Change adapters who act as ‘reactive pragmatists’ who adapt the vision to the
realities of the organization and view organizational change as a slow iterative
process.
3. Change consultants who implement a discrete change project or the key
stages of an HR change initiative.
4. Change synergists who strategically coordinate, integrate and deliver large
scale and multiple change projects across the whole organization.
HRM MODELS: CALDWELL
Source: Caldwell R (2002) Champions, adapters, consultants and synergists: the new change agents in HRM,
Human Resource Management Journal, 11 (3)
Caldwell concentrates on the role of HR managers as change agents and has
identified four types:

42. Griener’s (1998) Growth Model

43. PEST Analysis
• Aids the decision making process
• Can tell the business if they need to change
what they are doing
• Can help businesses see the opportunities
• Good analysis of the businesses competitors
• Helps businesses understand emerging trends
and opportunities
• It may lead organisations to reconsider their
resources

44. SWOT Analysis
Strength Weakness
Opportunities
Threats

45. HRM Activities
• Strategy Formulation
• Human Resource Planning
• Recruitment & Selection
• Appraisal & Performance Mgt.
• Reward Management
• Training & Development
• Employee Relations
• Administration

46. The execution of strategy lies in the hands
of individuals and therefore no matter how
good the strategy is, if it fails to take
account of the people element it is doomed
to failure at worst or to partial success at
best.
(Gunnigle et al 1997)

47. Exercise
• Discuss the key HRM activities of your
organization.
• Analyse the external factors, using SWOT
and PESTLE analysis and their impact on
these activities.
• Apply with justifications the HRM models
to the company HRM function.