human resource management definition

human resource management definition

Exploring the Significance and Impact of Human Resource Management in Modern Organizations

1. Introduction to Human Resource Management

Since the cost of an employee’s pay and benefits are in the total budget of many companies, it is not surprising that currently the human resource management team is in the heart of a number of critical business decisions. HRM also handles a company’s most crucial resources and, as a result, has to resolve significant ethical, ecological, political and social influences. It is difficult to evade the judgment of HRM at different levels. HRM essentially affects all areas of the operation of a corporation, as well as the different lines of work these areas are configured and connected with the organization.

The primary resource in any organization is its human workforce. As a company’s first and most significant investment, its staff has to be properly nurtured and managed to achieve the best results. Human Resource Management is all about people at work and their relationship within the organization. Human Resource Management, in essence, is a vast package of policies, practices, and programs related to the management of an organization which will lead to the fulfillment of the employees as individuals and members of a work group, organizational effectiveness, and greater social relevance.

2. Key Functions and Roles of Human Resource Management

The contemporary HRM department might include little more than one overall HRM manager and a small payroll and personal agency, or the department could be divided between various smaller departments. The high level of importance given to the HRM function as a catalyst for the management of culture and of the management of cooperative strategies is supported by the observations in a number of case studies and surveys. Not only are these specific strategies unique to HRM, but also the HRM professionals themselves have set up the strategic formulation process. For example, management development was pushed by the human resource management team and the senior managers at DEC by arguing that developmental programs would “enhance the existing company culture which rewards performance.” The HRM function is not only unique because its importance extends beyond recruitment, selection, and training tasks but also because each one of its activities appears to have an impact on the value chain of competitive advantage.

The specific HRM functions depend on the need to create, manage and support the human resources of each organization. The nature of the HRM tasks can be grouped according to the following three main “roles” of the HRM function in the organization: a) the administrative role, b) the welfare role and c) the development role. Activities that are included in the administrative role are those which bear upon the recruitment, selection and remuneration of employees. The welfare role of HRM can be visualized as the process of sharing the income, the work psychological and physical conditions, and the management of infra-occupational relations so that they become the ones desired by the organization and its members. The development role refers to the process of managing the whole process of learning by which the organization can increase its knowledge and its capacity for action.

3. Strategic Human Resource Management Practices

Here, the focal diagnostic lens is revealed in identifying how HR professionals strategically respond to a genuine need to be involved in stepping up and out in aligning HR strategies with corporate strategies or, unanimously, with the co-labor strategy decades of work. These discussions are conducted in explicit recognition that strategic HR management remains a resource-based and strategic architecture that underpins systems and processes within HR strategies. Indeed, the five HR practices that are tightly associated with strategic HR management behaviors have been considered.

Featuring discussion on strategic human resource management practices in modern organizations, this article seeks to further extend contemporary debate and discussion on modern strategic HR best practices specifically. Acknowledging the difficult complexities associated with the process of HR strategies implementation in organizations, discussions begin with dedicating overall focus to the significant roles of line managers in practicing people management on the front lines of business before transitioning into debate centered on implementation of formal HR roles and functions by HR professionals.

4. Challenges and Opportunities in Human Resource Management

Third, HRM departments face the major challenge/opportunity of helping to create an organization that emphasizes shorter, more flexible work arrangements in which employees are expected to demonstrate personal responsibility for meeting objectives. Fourth, HRM is responsible for promoting, developing, and supporting the culture of the firm. Finally, HRM departments need to collaborate with employees and their representatives to address the many ethical, moral, and social implications of the corporation. Once the following criteria are provided of what it means to be socially responsible and ethical, organizations change, and HRM functions change in both substance and form. They are, in effect, a crucial part of the intervention process.

In truth, as socialization agents, HRM departments face even greater challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. First, they must work with employees to create a family-friendly organization – one that allows employees to blend their family responsibilities with the demands of the firm. Second, HRM departments must work with employees to promote greater acceptance of a diverse – and increasingly multi-generational – workforce. If they don’t, the potential for nondominant groups within the firm to create intergroup difficulties (also called ‘Diversity’) can create considerable internal disruption.

5. Emerging Trends and Technologies in Human Resource Management

Changes in the business environment require innovative responses to ensure that companies are more agile, more highly motivated, and better able to respond to and manage change. At the same time, there is a need to respond to the changing nature of employment in the information economy and to the demand for balance between organizational goals and individual aspirations. The emphasis in this chapter is on how HR policies and practices are now evolving in response to these broad environmental shifts. The chapter focus is on the new deployment of technology, the development of employees and managers, competencies and the nature of work, and the reaction to managerialism and the New Public Management in the public sector. While there is little evidence to suggest some kind of ‘New HRM’, owing more to dialogue and involvement than to the ‘hard edges’ of HRM, there is some suggestion of a developing policy area related to work-life balance.

Thus far, we have explored a number of interlinked aspects of HRM and its strategic significance that are at the core of people management in modern organizations. We have tried to unravel the strategic, ethical, controlled, social, and normative threads that make up the HRM tapestry. We then identified the essential themes, introducing the fundamental elements that are at the heart of HRM in Chapter 1 and exploring its emergence in its modem form in Chapter 2. Following that, we also considered the place of HRM in the management of modern private and public sector organizations in Chapter 3 before considering the issues of culture, gender, the changing nature of work, knowledge management, and the managing of change that are embedded in the practice of HRM in Chapter 6.