evolution of human resource management essay

evolution of human resource management essay

The Evolution of Human Resource Management: A Comprehensive Exploration

1. Introduction to Human Resource Management

It is the intention of human resource management to establish and stimulate employee-employer relations, a sense of common mission along with human counterparts to complement and enhance the performance of the company/facility/organization. To Human Resource Management, decision making begins with the scheduling of human resources, i.e. the placing of people at their jobs, assignment and placement, appointment and staffing, i.e., recruitment, testing, selection and orientation. The employees and potential employees must also be regularly informed of information about their work, social, and economic conditions of employment, as well as data about the development of their jobs and related opportunities. Additional factors that ensure optimism and constructive interaction between managers and employees are the development of more intelligent and better-informed methods of managing, guiding and controlling, supervision, job evaluation, and compensation/payment, and channels for personal development using technological and economic developments. Training, development, improvement, communication, and public affairs, public relations, and labor intervention are clearly human resource management functions. High performance needs all of these segments, together with the requisite stress, health, and safety concerns. And therefore personnel management is vital for industrial relations, which is market relations, other relations, as well as internal transactions, and policy actions.

Human resource management makes efficient use of people – the force that activates all other resources and objectives of organizations. All managers are fundamentally involved in teamwork, enabling and assisting the employees to work productively together. Human Resource Management is no longer considered a staff function. It is a form of management. Its role as a supervisory and their day-to-day responsibilities are employed in the management of people. Regardless of whether their degrees are liberal arts or technical/professional, the managers are called upon to make real-time decisions requiring sensitivity, dedication, search for knowledge, awareness, and facilitation that is fundamental for Human Resource Management.

2. Historical Foundations of HRM Practices

The growth of the mercantile power in the commune cities of Italy weakened the status and power of the Roman unit and this development was further accelerated by renewed attacks of more “primitive” forces from beyond the Alps. The constant feuding forced the units of government to own and equip their own armies; with the individual companies and units of government beginning to purchase their manpower. New techniques were again required and the “retainer” phase originated in private trade and commerce units who purchased manpower to operate and protect the city-state plus commerce interest outside the city’s walls. The time needed for acquisition of the physical skills to use any technique permitted the birth of a class of soldiers. Local peasants learned the actual physical skills, but they were just hunters, or serfs who learned how to use the hunting skills, actually servile per-decision makers. After the rent came the profit incentive and the artisan or other producer had to learn how to use the skills that the outstanding soldiers possessed. Now the simple decision making could be accomplished. From a few individuals to start, the process could expand.

In search of the essentials of HRM, one need look no further than this arrangement of the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries. All of the matter covered in business schools today about HRM is included in the totality of the arrangements referred to briefly. Managing war required some redistribution of resources from other productive ventures. The days of conspicuous consumption had also to come. Company sponsored and underwritten games, to keep the management team in training, were held and the management team performed. When not actually performing they received other rewards. Later the age of chivalry would rear its head with the cast of soldiers performing. Somewhere nearby the Human Resource Department serviced the needs of the management team. Enough people at the gates were brought into the family units to become the future project members of the staff units. These contributors briefed the management staff member and serviced the options of management. Both countryside and urban centers recognized the management teams by some method that was more than symbolic. Little hamlets would starve in the winter if the arrangement did not work. They would be burned during the summer. Position equivalents of the retainers did not come from other groups in those days, for only the techniques of age lent themselves to the ideal. Every action was an all-out route for either the newcomer from the ranks who was to enter management or the noble who chose this natural job.

Down through the Middle Ages in Europe, members of the common background staffed the management functions. Knights, or others, who managed the affairs of a king or a duke, took care of material matters. War was the primary business undertaken and only the management matters related to war were the large concerns. The staff were referred to as “retainers” and primarily took care of the bodyguard functions, leaving the actual decision making to others. Outside and around the retainers gathered estate centers of human contacts, under various names and insignias. They helped the decision-making retainers and the decision-making noble.

3. Emergence of Modern HRM Concepts and Theories

The institution of human resource management can be accomplished by adopting one or more of the many proposals of leading practitioners in the field. The ultimate structure and process of personnel interests, motivations, capabilities, and health. By establishing programs designed to maintain a high level of both mental and physical health by fostering continuing development, learning, and future adaptability. By fostering equilibrium in behavior that leads toward the mutual development of the employee and the organization. By the provision of effective means to deal with all of these concerns. In order to accomplish these goals, the personnel function must have at its disposal the many concepts, techniques, and methods. The continued progress of managerial theory and practice now points to the need for a second type of personnel function which has as its primary focus the people of the organization. The next stage of development for the management of human resources and the evolutionary changes in perspectives of the organization and its human resources and structuring the personnel function to be most effective.

The human resources model suggests the following characteristics of an effective personnel department: (1) It is a co-leader for every aspect of management’s job. (2) It is organized along functional lines similar to other management departments. (3) It must have decision-making authority in personnel-related matters. (4) It must be recognized as an integral management function. (5) Jobs must be assigned on the basis of managerial potential. (6) The personnel director must have line responsibility in operating departments. (7) It must have sufficient status within the organization to build good and wholesome relationships. (8) It must have a good deal of time to listen, to talk, to discuss, and to think in order to gain an understanding of the business. (9) The personnel department must have the necessary organization to provide management with general supervisors.

The major influences on increasing emphasis on human resource management in the business world are the open systems model and the human resources model. The open systems model views the human organization as open to numerous environments, including economic, social, technological, political, and legal environments. A critical state of the organisms, which serves as a basis for system change, is the problem-solving element. Problems that progress over the critical state are change catalysts, forcing the system to reassess itself. The progressive adaptation to the process, where feedback is utilized to maintain a steady state while creating some acceleration or dynamic change, is organizational development. The systems model proposes that the personnel department must have a feedback system allowing the provision of timely and accurate information with respect to the organization’s environment and all phases of system activity.

4. Technological Advancements in HRM

The pace of technological innovation is accelerating rapidly in most advanced and developing economies. This is having an impact on many aspects of business, including human resource management (HRM). As HRM departments around the world have been transforming their traditional functions within the organization, they have to rely on the most complex and sophisticated technologies in order to manage their function efficiently and effectively. This has an effect on their business processes, and the use of e-HRM is increasing. The emerging digital economy will lead to digital enterprises that are strongly driven by the electronic human resource management system. Therefore, it is relevant for us to research the application of IT in HRM. Accurate and reliable information is the lifeblood of human resources management. The three key technological developments that have influenced the human resources function have been the growth of Management Information Systems technology for storing, updating, processing, and communicating information, computer-linked social networks for identifying and facilitating contacts with appropriate job applicants, and software packages for the administration of HR policies and programs. In recent times, the expansion of the Internet is starting to have a major influence on HRM. Currently, the general HRM trend in organizations is toward the application of IT, especially in the automation and integration aspects, to streamline HR administration, transactions, and record-keeping, which will free HR staff to become more strategic contributors to organizational effectiveness. Web technologies have further developed such automation and integration. These electronic HRM applications use Internet technologies to deliver information and services. Providing e-HRM in these new organizations and galvanizing interest in designing and integrating e-HRM. The quick adoption of web technology is important for HRM organizations. Yet few of these e-HRM initiatives are well understood, and HRIS managers have little or no experience or knowledge with the deployment options.

This article aims to examine the evolution of human resource management (HRM) in the world’s technological advancement era. Without the implication of technological advancement, many organizations would not have been able to reach the level of success that is available to individuals today. In organizations today, management has greatly recognized the development of new technologies and the application of information technology (IT) in HRM practice. It highlights the key technological advancements for its transformation within the HRM departments and emphasizes the broad definitions of HRM and IT. Technologies such as management information systems (MIS), social networks and Internet technology, and HRM software are discussed. Emphasis and explanation of the e-HRM process model are also included for discussion.

5. Future Trends and Challenges in HRM

HRM effectiveness can be traced to the ability of an organization to achieve its goals by attracting, developing, and maintaining a talented and satisfied workforce. The current and projected trends that impact HRM include environmental, organizational, and technological issues. Future HRM challenges are not to be met in typical ways, as status quo thinking will not address some of the major changes that are occurring. Some of the future trends in HRM envision developing global executive capabilities, addressing the moral and ethical implications of individual managerial decisions, and dealing with new kinds of strategic alliances to support a cross-cultural managerial viewpoint. Unless innovative thinking is used and the structure of HRM is allowed to morph into the new environments, and the demands created by the fusion of information technology and globalization, companies may find that they are out of sync with the global economy. The same principles, considerations, and functions of HRM that emerged today—such as recruitment, hiring, training, and compensation—will continue to form the foundation of future HRM, but the format and the requirements needed to prepare the shift of HRM into the next century surely will not be the same as the emergent HRM of previous years.