Hard and Soft Models of Human Resource Management Essay

Gomez-Mejia, L., Balkin, D., & Cardy, R. (2012). Managing Human Resources (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Alignment between HRM practices and organizational strategy establishes a coherent system for organizations. There has to be a "fit" between the human resource planning and organizational strategy, Internal fit aligns HR practices with strategic organizational objectives while external fit aligns HR practices with the external environment. The external fit exhibits a more precise fit between quality policy and assertive performance HRM practices (Youndt,

Byars, Lloyd L., and Leslie W. Rue. Human resource management. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.

Human resources management was defined as ‘a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to the employment, development and well-being of the people working in organizations’ by Boxall and Purcell (2003). Noon, 1992 (as cited in Armstrong, 2014 a, p6) drew ‘doubts of whether HRM was a map, a model or a theory. But it is evident that the original concept could be seen as a philosophy’. The human

People are biggest asset for every organization and, therefore, to draw, motivate, and preserve the most skilled employees and assign them to jobs for which they are exceptionally well suited is a responsible job for human resource. Therefore, human resources management is done in all type of organizations. Profound management of people is equally indispensable in success of organizations as the sound management of production, finance, and other operations. The human resource management field postulates the infinite diversity of people and their dynamics (McKenzie & Traynor, 2002). To get into this career field, one must have the required education degree by completing many different courses, and have the experience along with skills and

Cascio, W. F. (2013). Managing Human Resources (9th ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

Different models have been introduced to describe the role of HRM, which categorises the “soft” or the “hard” approach

Buckley, R. M., Fedor, D. B., & Ferris, G. R. (2002). Human resources management: perspectives, context, functions, and outcomes (4th ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.

Scott, Clothier and Spriegel (2002) have defined Human Resource Management as that branch of management that is responsible of operations which are mainly concerned with the relationship of management to employees and employees and to employees with development of the individual and the group. People are responsive, they think, feel and act moreover cannot be operated like machines. They therefore need a tactful handling by personnel management.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. (2011). Managing human resources (11th ed.). [CourseSmart]. http://dx.doi.org/ISBN-13 9991133185727

‘Human Resource Management is a strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities and commitment is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage or superior public services.’ (Bratton and Gold, 2012, p.7). Therefore, it is important to understand the concept of human resource management model and how does it work and influence organization. While many model of HRM emerged, soft and hard model are both most widely adopted (Truss, et al., 1997). Both soft and hard HRM model are emphasizing to integrate the HR policies with business strategic, but the main distinction is how organization sees individual, which is as resource in hard model or as human in soft

Human Resource Management is a vital function in any organisation and operates in legal and social environments that are becoming increasingly complex. It is defined as the process and practice of managing and advising executives on staff recruitment, selection, retention and development (Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis 2011). In the post-bureaucratic era, these management styles have altered to cater towards satisfying employees through intrinsic rewards by providing pride, relationships, meaning and a sense of accomplishment through their work (Clegg, Josserand & Teo 2006). Throughout this essay, the evolution of human resource management from the bureaucratic era’s ‘hard theories’ to the post-bureaucratic era’s ‘soft theories’ will be

Dessler, Gary, Nina D. Cole, and Carolin Rekar Munro. Management of human resources . 3rd Canadian ed. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.

Human resource is one of the important factors to be utilised for achieving organisational goals. Human Resource management (HRM) is a premeditated methodology to manage the human resource of the organization with the help of functions like recruitment, training and development, utilizing and retaining this asset etc. (Simons, 2011). The nature of workforce in every organization demographically and psychologically vary. Therefore, every organization has its own tailor made HRM policy and the procedures.

Hard HRM is often considered as the opposite of Soft HRM, as it is defined as “quantitative, calculative and business-strategic [mean] of managing the "headcount resource””36 and sees the employee more like a resource, similar to other components of the production. The HR policies and practices are coherent with the strategic goals set by the company and aim to increase the general competiveness of the company. Following, the management expects the employees to be unwilling to work and has to take control over his actions to secure the companies stability and competiveness. The employee is instrumentalized.