Unlocking Mandatory Intercourse : Human Resources Management

3. Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) cited in Leatherbarrow C., Fletcher, J. & Currie, D. (2010) Introduction to Human Resource Management. 2nd Edition. London: CIPD

The working environment of many western companies is currently changing a lot. Due to the globalisation and opening of markets companies are confronted with new problems. As a consequence organisational structures and practices are altering. In addition, human resource management practices need to be adopted as well. This is nothing unusual and has constantly happened in the past. In the beginning of the 20th century the scientific management theory of Frederick Taylor was extremely popular. Later, theories of Henri Fayol or Max Webber gained influence. A major shift in HRM came than from the human relations theory of Elton Mayo. Today the main concern of modern HRM theories is selecting and developing the employee.

The workplace is a delicate environment filled with different personalities types. These differing needs of feeling safe and comfortable create many challenges in the workplace. The creation of the Human Resource Department has helped create a safety net for all employees to fall under and create a stable environment for employees to feel safe and secure. Regulations such as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor have in some ways removed the common sense and compassion in the workplace and replaced it with litigation. The effect of these regulations have balanced the workplace and created a more

The vertical hierarchical structure and authoritarianism in bureaucratic organizations is what distorts communication, and reduces accountability, responsiveness and commitment towards core activities (Morris, Farrell, 2007). Instead a flatter hierarchy with decentralized management would be more favourable. It would be cost-efficient as wages would be allocated to fewer levels of management. For example, Call centres in the US adopted flat hierarchies to achieve minimization in costs (Bozionelos, 2008). Subordinates at lower levels of management will be expanded which will motivate staff and provide greater opportunities and sustainability wherein management leads and engages, but does not control and delegate (Dhillon et al. 2015). And consequently,

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

A rapidly changing business environment due to technological changes and the impacts of globalization has resulted in shift of human resources paradigms (Khan, 1997). In every organization

Bratton,J. and Gold, J. (2012) Human resource management: theory & practice, 7th ed., Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

Schuler (1997) summarises Strategic Human Resource Management as expressing how people are to be treated and valued in the workforce as well human resource management's responsibility for articulating the processes which encourage behaviour which is consistent with the organisation's business. In this context strategic human resource management also includes the development of guidelines for the implementation of people-related programs and, the more complex area of co-ordinating and facilitating change.

One of the most dominant factor is the fact that human resources are the most valuable assets of an organization. Another important principle, expressed by Ashly Pinnington in her book ‘Human Resource Management Ethics and Employment’, is that “a succesful business is more likely to be achieved if the personal polices and

The field of human resources encompasses the type and level of management requisite for the active and effective recruitment, hiring, day to day employment practices, job termination policy, job description policy and much more. It is by developing an understanding of proactive techniques that when effectively applied to company’s workforce – a human resource team can actually change conditions on the ground. Human resources professionals everywhere

The next transformation to occur with Human Resource departments in the late 1980s was coined as the “New” HR (Groysberg et al., 2006, p. 2). This new evolution brought HR into a strategic role within the company. The department acted like a business within a business – dealing with “leadership and talent development, promotion of organizational learning, succession planning, and dissemination of knowledge” (Groysberg et al., 2006, p. 2). This new strategic HR strived to deliver actions that could help execute the company’s goals, motivate employees to align with company strategy, and directly help implement goals.

Such so-called ‘scientific management’ approaches were widely adopted in both the USA and Britain in the inter-war years”. (Human Resource Management in Ireland-Gunnigle, Heraty, and Morley, 2011 pg. 3)

5. Surveillance of workers through the use of hierarchies of authority 4. Training of the selected worker to perform the job in the specified way

Within this report, I will outline the reasons why it is both important and necessary to have a human resources function within a company and examine the purpose and benefits of HR management. Specifically, I will be looking at employment legislation, inductions within the workplace and the recruitment and employment process. Although it is imperative to have some kind of HR function within a business that hires staff, I will analyse the advantages and disadvantages of having either an individual person or a team of people as an operational HR function and evaluate my findings accordingly. I will discuss different types of employment documents and how these play a vital role within HR, alongside the methods and

The assumption underlies in this approach is that there are some ‘best’ human resource practices, which can universally apply to any organisations and will lead to the improvement of organisational performance, such as improvement in employees’ attitudes and productivity (Beardwell & Claydon, 2010:57; Purcell, 2001:60). It is a unitary perspective that assumes all employees would pursue the goals generated by organisations (Wilton, 2010: 278). One of the most well-known models is Pfeffer’s (1994,1998, cited in Beardwell & Claydon, 2010:57) ‘putting people first’, which identify seven HR practices