human resource management masters degree

human resource management masters degree

The Evolution and Future of Human Resource Management in the Modern Business Landscape

1. Introduction to Human Resource Management

The terms ‘personnel management’ and ‘human resource management’ are used interchangeably. HRM comprises two essential dimensions – human resource (HR) and human resource management (HRM). HR has drawn upon a number of areas: psychology, sociology, law, history, economics, and systems theory, followed by emerging areas, like social touch and knowledge management, and environmental green issues. Its future direction is pursued by a conceptual scenario with a conceptual framework followed by an empirical analysis. The areas under the purview of the function are continuously changing mainly due to the liberalization and globalization of the economy. This paper tries to map the future direction of human resource management – a functional discipline – holding a future time frame, with pilot exploration.

The field of human resource management has evolved from the manual workers in nationalized industries through feudalism and guilds to the complex and multiple roles of personnel managers and human resource managers. Though much confusion and uncertainty have surrounded the distinction between personnel management and human resource management, there is a clear difference. Personnel management is designated as old wine in a new bottle, without a clear distinction with its predecessor, but human resource management is a concept born out of theory, experience, and practice, which uses a great deal of fine blended wine and equates to an action philosophy.

2. Key Theories and Concepts in Human Resource Management

Underlying the Strategic Framework for human resource management lies the anchor idea that while businesses can boast of several areas in which they may afford to be as successful as those who tend to be, irrespective of their mission or values, the opposite holds true for other aspects of components of the organization. Staff members and the management of these staff members are at the centre of the pivotal mission of most organizations. Consequently, it is hard to imagine any business which might afford the human resource policies application to be not aligned to the pivotal teachings received from their strategy to obtain a competitive edge. Yet Strategic Human Resource Management is not simply human-resourced-based management in any business, that exerts impact on the strategic management of a corporation. From a more genuine vantage point it may be said that the mere mentioning of the HRM title outside the strategic business study will only take place within a more emotional or identity-bound context.

2.2 SHRM

Strategic Management, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, has been accredited with being among the most potent of all business theories to explain why firms are different, and why firms in identical industry settings perform differently. The human resource element is one of these, hence the importance of the Resource-Based View in HRM. Strategic HRM is grounded in the assertion that the most critical corporate resources are workforce skills, knowledge, organizational procedures, values, and employee capability. They are at the core of the role that HRM plays within the company. Subsequently, the Resource-Based View cannot be separated from the HRM function. The theory has also evolved into the development of the Strategic Foresight Model, offering long-term insight into converting HRM into a fundamental part of the business strategy. There are three sets of assets helping any company create a niche or competitive edge: tradition, closeness to the market, and/or the unique cultural make-up of the company. Pursuing HRM is an essential task of management if the company wishes to gain these advantages.

2.1 Resource-Based View in HRM

3. The Role of Human Resource Management in Organizational Success

In itself, HRM is a dynamic that keeps on changing as the requirement of the organization changes its progress from the current state to its desired state. HRM is concerned with the management of the employees in an organization. It provides people who can carry out work in accordance with the operations requirements, the terms of service as informed by government. It also improves and maintains the required capacity for the contribution of every person, permitting everyone to make a full contribution to the organization in accordance with his or her professional performance and to take care of the employed from the point of training and self-actualization. Since HRM alters the structures and their impacts, it influences the three core activities of an organization, such as extraction, transformation, and service. Human resources also handle organizational resources, such as employees, a smaller and more controllable resource which can make a great impact on the organization’s success.

An organization effectively operates through a system that can be put into effect by putting different sets of resources together in different combinations. These resources can be human resources, financial resources, and resources in the form of raw materials for actual production or needs. Among these resources, human resources is the most important of them effectively. At the same time, HRM helps to make it one of the basic resources. HRM is not just a duty for those who already work in a firm. With the arrival of international competition and the opening up of the economy and industry to the outside world, it has also become increasing duties for those at the helm of affairs make the right choices if they wish to remain in the loft strata of their respective industries.

4. Emerging Trends and Technologies in Human Resource Management

The global network, the internet, has revolutionized business management and has forced the business community to reassess and overhaul its strategies and operations. The network is quickly changing and evolving faster than the business community can react, and many businesses are losing their competitive edge through their inability to adapt. Human Resource Management is an organization’s ability to manage and maintain the hopes, dreams, talent, and needs of the organization’s employees before a spoiled produce attitude develops. This includes the selection, recruitment, training, development, performance, compensation, and communication of those employees. These variables are the organization’s people, which is, in almost all instances, the organization’s only competitive advantage that it has against its competition.

The advancements in technology have revolutionized business over the previous few decades and have forced the business community to reassess and overhaul its strategies and operations. With technology quickly changing and evolving faster than the business community can react, many businesses are losing their competitive edge through their inability to adapt. This is probably more pronounced in the domain of Human Resource Management, which is struggling to keep up with technology and its impact on the recruitment, selection, training, and retaining of a business’s workforce. With technology poised to continue evolving apace, it is essential that the businesses’ HRM function recognize and understand the implications and impacts, not only for the corporate strategies but also for their employees, and together ensure that the correct/best strategic options are undertaken.

5. Ethical Considerations in Human Resource Management

Will business organizations have to develop and implement human resource management strategies based on ethical principles? The ethical principles that a human resource manager will apply will arise from the human resource and business paradigms in which he/she is found. The human resource management models-paradigms found in today’s organizations result not only from the conditions of the business environment but from many other areas such as knowledge of human behavior of those who manage and of their managerial and business theories. Businesses are encouraged to extend their markets and develop a more strategic approach and build in ethical policies within the overall business strategy.

What exactly is “ethics” and what is “business ethics”? Ethics is a philosophy that evaluates and defines what is right and wrong for a person’s behavior and also for the outcome of that behavior or the result of that opinion on society. Unsophisticated definitions reflect that business ethics is about what is considered right or wrong, good or evil by people concerning issues that can potentially occur in the exchange of goods and services. In other words, business ethics is a reflection of the behavior of the human being in business. It is not possible to separate and distinguish between business ethics and human behavior.