20th century human resource management - Essay Example

Running Head: HRM 20th Century - Human Resource Management of Institute] "During thelast quarter of the 20th Century (specifically the 1980s), human resource management arrived in the UK, having originated in the US. Please identify and explain those factors that led to the rise of this concept in the UK at this time" Introduction It has been observed that with time, as mentalities have changed and generations have passed people as individuals and as group have focused more on human rights. Human resource management is one of the distinguished sub-sectors which fall under human rights. Human resource management is related to employees. Their training; recruitment, interview and selection; labor relations, performance appraisal, wage and salary administration, equal employment opportunity, occupational health and safety act, personnel records management, quality of work life. Hence it deals with every necessity of an individual employee. Human resource management is said to have been originated in America in the late fifties and early sixties by the propagation of a different view of the work-force by the organizational humanists such as Argyris and McGregor. Since then number of new approaches leading to HRM have been formulated which include human capital theory by Likeert and human resource indexing by Schuster. The major similarity between all these approaches was that in these theories human labor was treated as a major asset rather then viewing labor as a cost factor. These theories or concept were further modified in 1980's the basic modification was that the new concepts aimed at the importance of the human factor aimed at integrating the personal function into general strategic management. These concepts were used as the foundation of HRM. (Human Resource Management: An International Comparison). Reasons for Emergence of Human Resource Management in United Kingdom Human resource management is concept which was born in USA, but with time the concept was adopted or we can say shifted to UK in the last quarter of the 20th century. In the 1980,s United States was held up as model to emulate in the UK. IN THE 1980's America had weak union relationships the reason for this being the dominance given of market economy. While in UK the trade unions were much more powerful and membership was high, thus a vacuum was created in UK to evacuate the strong bonds between trade unions. To achieve this misconception was created that the pluralist industrial relations strategy to deliver good industrial relations or an efficient and productive industry has failed. (Contemporary Industrial Relations: A Critical Analysis) The result of this was that a new legislation was needed urgently which would be detrimental about the roles of trade unions. Thus UK policy makers deduced an approach which had the potential to replace pluralistic system; this approach was the human resource management which focused on individualism. In the 1980s UK faced recession while his competitor US was in the period of mass production and corporate organization. The reason for this was the shortcomings in managerial techniques, UK employers and mangers chose to retain their imperial and specialist markets. Thus when the Bruisers realized their mistakes they chose to adopt US standards of managing human resource. This was the time when human resource management was introduced in UK after being originated and tested by the American organizations. The private sector was the first to adopt human management resources. (Change for Competitive Success) The private sector adopted human resource management first because in the 1980,s a number of private organizations were being introduced in the UK. The governments organizations were old and well established thus they were able to compete with increase in completion very easily. While the newly developed private sector which was growing rapidly was not able to compete with the increase in competition, as not only were the private organizations evolving by the locals but also other regions were establishing their organizations. Hence to compete with the increase in competition effectively, trained; skilled; loyal and effective labor was required. The private sector saw human resource management as an asset to attract competent labor towards their organizations. ( Managing Human Resources in Africa) "Then there is the dual labor force which put an additional pressure on the spreading of human resource management in UK" (Urban Competitiveness: policies for dynamic cities). Dual labor force and marginalization that occurred in 1980 in UK even supported the concept of human resource management. as numerous new organizations from around the globe was taking place, skilled labor was pouring in and women were even getting absorbed in labor force discrimination tended to occur. People of the minority were tending to get little attention even after producing quality work effectively, then their was the identity crisis which occurred as the locals isolated the minority the minority was not given a chance in unions. Thus the overall performance of the organization decreased as staff was not comfortable in the environment hence a need for an individualistic approach was needed which would satisfy the needs of the locals and human resource management was the ideal choice. After world war 2 the concept of shop steward system evolved according to this workers were given direct and substantial authority over decisions described as giving workers direct and substantial authority over decisions relevant to their work group including economic decisions. Thus the pattern that followed in UK was of bargaining. In the absence of rules and a legal framework the problem in the workplace was steeled using collective bargaining. This created problems for the employees and thus the employee to chose to adopt the concept of human resource management as it had certain guidelines which distinguished rights of the employee over employer and vice versa. (Dynamic Human Resource Systems: Cross-National Comparisons) Then there is globalization during the end of the 20th century especially the 1980's the trend of organizations becoming global with the help of developing technology. As companies were getting global employees were hired everywhere in the in the world, wherever necessary skills and experience can be found thus to have a generalized guidelines on how to manage the employee human resource management was introduced. Then their was the space factor people living far and wide could not form trade unions and thus needed a system which would deal with individualism. (International Human Resource Management: policy & practice for the global enterprise) The other reason which is analyzed as being the foundation of the emergence of HRM as an "important part of the management of British enterprise in the 1990's is the modern version of managing resources in a recession" (Industrial Relations in Schools). In recession were government acts hostile to the interest of labor, employers are forced by financial stringency and market competition to push down unit labor costs, this feature is more common in labor intensive industries an example of this can be UK. To reduce opposition against the manager's ad owners who have reduced unit labor cost and has made numerous employees redundant is by convincing the employees of the benefits which can be achieved through isolation labor as individuals. Thus to achieve this new management model was needed this model was adopted by UK from the America and it was known as human resource management which was based on individualism. It gave employees rights as individuals but when analyzed from a different perspective human resource management was seen as being a hidden asset of the employee. Human resource management leads to work intensification through job analysis and performance management; de-skilling through job evaluation and new appointment systems; and reward controls through performance related pay and fewer senior posts. (Industrial Relations in Schools). Thus all these factors contributed in the usage of human resource management by the UK organizations. Human resource management though was a concept invented in USA organizations all around the globe like in Asia, Africa and Australia to name a few adopted this concept in the hope to improve their productivity, efficiency and to cope with increasing competition. Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance Then there is the usage of human resource management and how it affects the overall working of the organization. Many business organizations including hospitals and schools have using human resource management to provide their organizations with active, comfortable and satisfied employees. Quantitative analyses done by Kamoche in 1994 "suggests that human resources can enhance organizational performance on the basis of the configuration or HRM activities and how these are utilizes to manage know-how and skills"( Strategic Human Resource Management). Human resource activities play an important role in innovation and strategic change; it has given human beings an individual identity and an opportunity to prove their own human importance. Human resource management has created an aura in which an employee and an employer have strong individual bonds rather then just the union leader having communication with the employee. Human resource management has given every individual to progress on the basis of work rather then on the bases of color and cast Human resource management has helped in arranging human resources in which employees are visualized as an asset for the organizations rather then a group of employees. It has given individuals status in which they are given opportunities for improvement, they are motivated to achieve higher positions encouraged at time of depression and appreciated after working effectively by the employees or managers. To comprise the advantages I would like to say that human resource management has given employees a right to live as human beings rather then just machines. (Global Human Resource Management: Managing People in Developing and Transitional Countries) Criticism of Human Resource Management Even though human resource management is a concept adopted by several organizations there are criticism of this concept. Critics argue that human resource management neglects the imbalance between the power in the hands of a mass of individuals and the power held in the hands of the few in the name of organizations. Then there is the misconception according to which it should be resourceful humans rather then human resources. According to this human resources are easily manipulated by foot soldiers of organizations while resourceful human are the managers and other employees. (Human Resource Management: a strategic approach to employment) Then there is the criticism against the concept it has been evaluated that human resource management is based on theories and beliefs about motivation and other ideas related to human rights and organizational concepts. Critics have argues that the assumption that human resource management is a newer concept is wrong as the believes on which it is based have been around for more then 50 years. Then the ideology that the invention of human recourse management is to protect and provide individual employees with more convenient atmospheres, better promotion prospects etc. While the critics argue that human resource management is a criterion which would help employees or organizations as a whole. They argue that human resource management is a concept which creates an illusion that it is for the betterment of the workers while in reality it helps the employees. An example of this can be taken that by the idea that human resource management has & the demand for flexible labor, it in testifies labor, reduces cost thus the overall perception that human resource management benefits the employees is wrong. Conclusion Human resource management although being a new theory has gained immense importance not only in US and UK but all around the globe. Reason for this other then those discussed earlier, is companies in which the management or employees follow the criteria of human resource management have seen to have an increase in performance thus leading to productivity. Employees of such companies are seen to be more devoted and loyal; they tend to share stronger bonds with the employer and organization as whole. Human resource management is thought of a concept which has proved to have numerous advantages. Hence it is expected that scholars would take human resource management a step further they would improve, amend and generalize this concept which would prove beneficial for global business organization. While critics of human resource management tend to observe human resource management just an evolution of personal management. They argue that human resource management is not a new concept it has existed in organization in the past in other forms, the only reason for the rise in the human resource management is that it has became a fashionable topic in the business world and with time would away. (Human Resource Management: A Strategic Introduction) References Andrew M. Pettigrew, Richard Whipp, Managing Change for Competitive Success, Blackwell publishing, 1991, page no: 206 Chris Hendry, Human Resource Management: a strategic approach to employment, Elsevier, 1995, page no: 5 Dennis R. ( Briscoe, Randall S. Schuler, International Human Resource Management: policy & practice for the global enterprise, Routledge, 2004, page no: 46 Dr Christopher Mabey, Dr Graeme Salaman, John Storey, Human Resource Management: A Strategic Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, 1998, page no: 27, 28 Derek ( Eldridge, Willy McCourt, Global Human Resource Management: Managing People in Developing and Transitional Countries, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003, page no 49 & 50. Iain Begg ,Urban Competitiveness: policies for dynamic cities, The Policy Press, 2002, page no: 104 Ian J. Beardwell, Contemporary Industrial Relations: A Critical Analysis, Oxford University Press, 1996, page no: 13 & 14 James P. Bergin, Dynamic Human Resource Systems: Cross-National Comparisons, Walter de Gruyter, 1997, page no: 140. Ken N. Kamoche, Managing Human Resources in Africa, Routledge, 2004, page 84 & 85 Roger V. Seifert, Mike Ironside, Industrial Relations in Schools, Routledge, 1995, page number: 136 Rdiger Pieper, Human Resource Management: An International Comparison, Walter de Gruyter, 1990, PAGE NO: 1, 2. Randall S. Schuler, Susan E. Jackson, Strategic Human Resource Management, Blackwell Publishing, 1999, page no: 99 Read More