What Human Resource Management Is And To What Extent Do Hard And Soft HRM Practices Differ - Essay Example

Human Resource Management Human Resource Management can be defined as the management of a workforce of an organisation or human resources. Human Resource Management is responsible for attracting, selecting, assessing, training, and rewarding the employees and ensuring that the employees are compliant with the labour laws and the guidelines managing their terms.Since the mid-80s, the introduction of HRM (Human Resource Management) has influenced employment relationships. Over the time, HRM has confronted the existence of industrial relations. Others argue that industrial relations and human resource management hold different views of similar phenomena set. This paper will critically analyse HRM and why it is not articulating to industrial relations practices. In the recent past adoption of HRM practices has been on the rise thus challenging the personnel management existing order in many organizations. A lot of questions have remained unexplained on why HRM has been dominant over the other practices of employment. Attempts to sufficiently define the role of HRM have been unsuccessful. Many scholars had to speculate if there has been anything new formed regarding the precise definition of HRM. Some view human resource management to be in direct rebellion and rejection with personnel management and industrial relations. Others on the other hand view HRM to be a repackaged form of Personnel Management (Torrington & Hall, 2005). Interestingly, there has been a considerable degree of extension and overlap between the roles, models and theories that constitute the disciplines of Personnel Management and HRM. The overlap is in support of the fact and argument that HRM is Personnel Management that has been repackaged, and there is no big change between the two. On the contrast, the HRM outcomes have not been in agreement with that of traditional Personnel management. For example, cultural controls, strategic orientations and normative concepts are absent in HRM. Many argue that the distinction between HRM and Personnel Management is on the different ways in which the theories and models they share are being deployed. A definite example that districts between the two disciplines is discourse and dialogue HRM treats labour unions (Robbins & Coulter, 2005). To the labour process theory, HRM has become a universal term describing the different employment governance approach. To define the employment management procedures, it is necessary to distinguish between HRM as a discipline and HRM as a dialogue. To reveal the actual role of HRM it is vital to carry out a definition of based in the context it operates in. In my view, HRM is a regulation mode that nurtures an accumulation capitalist regime. It is because the HRM practices were first being formulated implemented by the Western nations whose economies are capitalists in nature. It is evident that HRM is an integral force that shaped the western countries capitalist structure. That is why they have been in the forefront of advocating for the adoption of HRM practices in organizations. HRM rise over other practices like personnel management and industrial relations has only been because of the regulation by western countries like the US (Mathis & Jackson, 2003). The extent to which hard and soft HRM practices differ HRM has a significant role in many organizations. It is because the workforce comprises of people for an invaluable asset that an organization needs to exploit well to achieve goals and objectives. Two contrasting HRM theories have been formulated to tackle the employees in a company set up, namely, soft HRM and hard HRM. Many people often confuse the two diverse approaches yet they are on the extreme extends. I will demonstrate the difference margin and extend between two HRM approaches styles, soft and hard HRM. The pros and cons between the two facilitate managers to make an informed decision on the method to adopt between the two or a blend of both. It is essential to establish the fact that both soft and hard HRM have a vital significance to an organization, as such they are critical to business entities. A company will, for example, have a competitive advantage over its rivals if it uses its human resources in an efficient manner. Utilizing the expertise of a workforce and ensuring they are motivated will enable a business entity to achieve its goals and objectives (Andersen, 1999). In the late 1980s, Storey helped elaborate on the Harvard and Michigan management models on the Y and X theories to show the difference between soft and hard HRM styles. Theory X views employees as having self-interests and lazy in their duties. The approach to the theory implies that the interest of the employees and the company are completely contrasting. Furthermore, Theory X indicates that it is the role of the managers to make the employees alter their behaviour so as to meet goals. The approach by Theory X views employees as machines, and the management has a duty to force them to be productive. The theory X demonstrates the hard HRM style. On the other hand, Theory Y demonstrates the Soft style of HRM by viewing employees to be human beings with feelings, emotions and motivations. As opposed to the hard HRM style, they are not considered as machines. As such, the management of an organization must seek to motivate them since they are seen to be creative and proactive. In general hard HRM sees employees as lazy while soft HRM views employees to be responsible and hardworking. Hard HRM considers employees to be machines with no feelings and emotions and must be induced to alter their behaviour. In contrast, soft HRM is a humane style of management that has compassion for employees that seeks to motivate employees to enable achievement of organizational goals. It does not induce behaviour alteration since the workers are not being treated as machines. Hard HRM is, therefore, a complete approach in comparison with the soft HRM style (Andersen, 1999). Additionally, the hard HR management identify the need of the workforce based on the management, recruit and business accordingly. This normally involves the hiring, firing, and also moving. On the other hand, soft Human Resource Management concentrated on the employee need. This involves the roles, motivation and also their rewards. The key features for the hard HR management are short term changes such as redundancy and recruitment while the key features are strategic focus on the planning of workforce. References Andersen, T. (1999). "Hard" versus "soft" HRM: The restructuring of employment in European banking. Mathis, R., & Jackson, J. (2003). Human resource management (10th ed.). Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-western. Patel, V., & Rana, G. (2007). Personnel management. Jaipur, India: Oxford Book. Robbins, S., & Coulter, M. (2005). Management (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Torrington, D., & Hall, L. (2005). Personnel management: HRM in action (3rd ed.). London: Prentice Hall. Read More