3787.introduction to hrm

8/2/2019 3787.Introduction to Hrm

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HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION:

Profit maximization, reasonable rate of return to owner and

reinvestment in business through satisfaction of customers,

maintenance of a satisfied workforce, and creation of good

public image are some objective which every organization

try hard to achieve. These objectives can best be achieved

with the optimum use of all the available resources such as,

human, technological, financial and physical resource.

Human Resource available to the management, although a

part of all the resources, can play vital role in achievement

of the objectives. It is through the combined efforts of the

people that monetary and other material resources are

utilized for organizational objectives. Therefore, it is the

human resources, which must be managed with utmost care

so that it can contribute its maximum to achieve

organizational objectives.

According to Leon C. Magginson:

The term human resources can be thought of as,

The total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents

and aptitudes of an organisations workforce, as well

as the value, attitudes and beliefs of the individuals

involved.


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Human resource is a resource like any other natural

resource. It means that management can get and use the

skill, knowledge, ability etc. through the development of

skills, tapping and utilizing them again and again.

Meaning of Human Resource Management:

Many terms used for HRM such as personnel or staff

management, personnel administration, Labour relations,

industrial relations etc. in simple sense human resource

management mean employing people, developing their

resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their

services in tune with the job and organisation requirements.

Human resource management is that process of

management which develops and manages the human

elements of an enterprise. It is not only the management of

skills but also the attitudes and aspirations of people. Whenindividuals come to a work place, they come with not only

technical skills, knowledge, experience etc., but also with

their personal feelings, perception, desires, motives,

attitude, value etc. So HRM means management of various

aspects of human resource.

An important element of human resource management is

the Humane Approach while managing people.

This approach helps the manager to view his people as an

important resource. It is an approach in which manpower

resources are developed not only to help the organisation in

achieving its goals but also to the self satisfaction of the


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concerned persons. On the one hand this approach focuses

on human resource development, and on the other to an

effective management of people. It focuses on the human

aspect of individual worker and his aspirations and needs.

Definitions:

Human Resource Management has been defined differently

by different writers. Some definitions are produced below:-

According to Flippo, Human resource

management is the planning, organizing,

directing and controlling of the procurement,

development, compensation, integration,

maintenance and reproduction of human

resources to the end that individual,

organizational and societal objectives are

accomplished.

According to dessler, Human resource

management is the process of acquiring,

training, appraising and compensating

employees, and attending to their labour

relations, health, safety and fairness concerns.

Functions of HRM:

The functions of HRM can be broadly classified into three

categories, viz.,


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1. Managerial Functions

2. Operative Functions

3. Advisory Functions

1. Managerial Functions:

All the basic functions of the organizational management are

performed by Human Resource manager which are as

follows:

(a) Planning:

Planning is determination of future course of action.

According to Allen it is a trap laid to capture the future.

Planning is determination of personnel programmes and

changes in advance that will contribute to the organizational

goals. Planning is necessary to determine the goals of the

organisation and lay down policies and procedures to reachthe goals. It involves planning of human resources

requirements, recruitment, selection, training, development

etc. The process of planning involves three steps,

Firstly, a supply and demand forecast for each job category

is made.

Secondly, net shortage and excess of personnel by job

category are projected for a specific time horizon.


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Finally, plan are developed to eliminate the forecast

shortages and excess of particular categories of human

resources.

(b) Organising:

After a course of action has been determined an

organisation should be established to carry it out. According

to Koontz and O Donnell , organisation is the establishment

of authority relationship with provision for coordination

between them, both vertically and horizontally in the

enterprise structure.

Organisational structure basically includes followingactivities:

(i) Grouping of personnel activity logically into functions

or positions.

(ii) Assignment of different functions to different

individuals.

(iii) Delegation of authority according to the tasksassigned and responsibilities involved.

(iv) Coordination of activities of different individuals.

(c) Directing

The basic function of personnel management at any level is

motivating, commanding, leading and activating people.

Directing is involved with getting person together and asking

them to work willingly and effectively for the achievement of

designated goals. Directing deals not only with the

dissemination of orders within an organisation units and

departments, but also with the acceptance and execution of

these orders by the employees. Securing acceptance and


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execution generally requires a certain amount of motivation

of individuals and groups. Otherwise, the actual performance

level may be well below that which is desired. The decision

are taken by the top management, but only after

consultation with personnel department.

(d) Controlling:

Controlling involves checking, regulating and verifying

whether everything occurs in conformity with the plan that

has been adopted, the instructions issued and the principles

established. It is greatly concerned with actions and

remedial actions. It is through control that actions andoperations are adjusted to pre determined standards; and its

basis is information in the hands of managers. By check ,

analysis and review, the personnel department assists in

realizing the personnel objectives.

Auditing training programmes, analysing labour turnoverrecords, directing moral surveys, conducting separation

interviews, interviewing new employees at stipulated

intervals, comparing various features of the programme with

other organisation programmes in the area, industry and

nation are some of the means for controlling.

OPERATIVE FUNCTIONS:

Operative function includes specific activities which are the

responsibility of the human resource / personnel

department. These functions include:

(i) Procurement Function

(ii) Development Function


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(iii) Compensating Function

(iv) Integration Function

(v) Maintenance Function

Procurement Function:

Procurement function is mainly concerned with securing and

employing proper kind and number of personnel necessary

to accomplish an organisations goals. It deals with the

following activities:

(i) Determination of manpower requirements,

(ii) Recruitment ,(iii) Selection and placement (comprising activities

screen and hire personnel including application

forms, psychological tests, interviews, medical

check-up, reference calling),

(iv) Induction,

(v) Follow-up,(vi) Transfer,

(vii) Lay-offs, discharge and separation, etc.

Development Function:

It is mainly concerned with the process of improving,

moulding and changing the skills, knowledge, creative

ability, attitude, aptitude,values, commitment etc. through

training so that job performance is properly achieved. This

function undertake the following activities:

(i) Drafting and directing training programmes for all

level of employees.


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(ii) Arranging for on the job, office and vestibule

training.

(iii) Holding seminars and conferences

(iv) Providing for educational and vocational counseling

and appraising employee potential and performance.

Compensation Function:

Each and every employee has to be paid adequate

compensation for the services he renders to the

organisation. The compensation is one of the major factors

of motivation to the employees, which has great bearing on

the performance of the employees and inturn, theperformance of the organisation. This function is concerned

with securing adequate and equitable remuneration to

personnel for their contribution to the attainment of

organistional objectives. It includes following functions:

(i) Wage surveys

(ii) Job classification(iii) Job analysis

(iv) Job descriptions

(v) Wage structure, wage plans and policies.

(vi) Incentive and profit sharing plans.

Integration Function:

Integration is concerned with the attempt to effect a

reasonable reconciliation of individual, societal, and

organization interests. It rest upon the premise that

significant overlapping of interest do exist in the

organization in such a programmes as job enlargement, job

evaluation, variable compensation plans. The greater the


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overlap, the more productivity would coincide with the

employee satisfaction.

Managerial activities that bring about a reasonable

integration of human resources and the organisation

objectives, are termed as Human Relations. Human

relation programme tend to decrease accidents,

absenteeism, turnover and operating errors while

simultaneously raising morale, quality and productivity such

programmes also prevent undesirable behaviour such as

sabotage, insubordination, strikes, etc.

Maintenance Function:

Maintenance function is concerned with working conditions

and welfare of the employees. The employees must be

provided with good working conditions so that they may like

their work and work place and maintain their efficiency. Safe

and hygienic working conditions certainly influence themotivation and morale of the employees. These includes:

(i) Measure taken for health , safety and comfort of the

work force.

(ii) Social and physical well being of the employees

which includes, provision of cafeteria, rest rooms,

counseling, group insurance, education for children

of employees, recreational facilities.

ADVISORY FUNCTIONS:

Human Resource Manager has specialized education and

training in managing human resources. He is an expert in his


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area and so can give advise on matter relating to human

resources of the organisation. He offers his advise to:

1. Top Management: Personnel manager advises the

top management in formulation and evaluation of

personnel programmes, policies and procedures. He

also gives advice for achieving and maintaining good

human relations and high employee morale.

2. Department Heads: Personnel manager offers

advice to the heads of various departments on

matter such as manpower planning, job analysis and

design, recruitment and selection, placement,training, performance appraisal etc.

NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The nature of human resource management has been

highlighted in the following features:-

1. Integral part of the process of management:Human resource management is embedded in the

organisational structure of and enterprise and an integral

part of the process of management itself. Human resource

management can not be separated from the basic

management function. This function is performed by all the

managers throughout the organisation rather than by the

personnel department only.

2. Comprehensive function: The main function of

human resource management is to manage people at work.

It is a comprehensive function which covers all types of

people at all levels in the organisation. In other words, it


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applied to workers, supervisors, officers, managers and any

other type of personnel in the organisation.

3. Pervasive function: human resource management

is comprehensive as well as pervasive. It is inherent in all

organisations and at all levels. It is not confined to industry

alone. It is equally useful and necessary in government ,

armed forces, sports organisations, and the like. It applied to

all the functional areas e.g. production marketing, finance,

research etc. Each and every manager is involved with

human resource function.

4. People Oriented: human resource management is

people oriented function and is concenrned with employees

as individuals as well as groups. It deals with human

relationship within an organisation. It is a process of

findingout the optimum arrangement between individuals,

jobs, organisations and environment. It is concerned with allcategories of personnel from top to the bottom of the

organisation.

5. Based on Human Relations: Human resource

management is concerned with the motivation of human

resources in the organisation. The human beings can not be

treated as other physical factors of production. Therefore,

human resource management:

(i) Stresses the solution of personnel problems.

(ii) consider every employee as and individual so as toprovide service and programmes to facilitate employeesatisfaction and growth


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(iii) Attempt to obtain willing cooperation of the employeesfor attainment of desired objectives.

(iv) Considers the emotions and sentiments of theemployees.

6. Continuous Process: Human resource management

is a continuous process. It is not a one function rather it is

never ending exercise.

7. Science as well as Art: Human resource

management is a science as it constrains an organised body

of knowledge consisting of principles and techniques. It is

also an art. Handling people is one of the most creative arts.

It involves the application of theoretical knowledge to the

problems of human resources. Thus it is science as well as

art.

8. Recent Origin: As compared to other areas of

management, human resource management is

comparatively a young discipline. It started in the later part

of nineteenth century.

9. Interdisciplinary: In modern time, human

resource management has become highly specialized job.

Moreover it is not an isolated subject, it is interdisciplinary. It

involves application of knowledge drawn from several like

sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics etc.

SCOPE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

According to Dale Yoder, the scope of human resource

management consists of the following activities:-


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(i) Setting general and specific management

policy for relationship and establishing and

maintaining a suitable organisation for leadership

and cooperation.

(ii) Collective bargaining, contract negotiations,

contract administration and grievances.

(iii) Staffing the organisation, finding, getting and

holding prescribed types and number of workers.

(iv) Aiding the self-development of employees at

all levels, providing opportunities for personnel

development and growth as well as for requisite skill

and experience.(v) Incentivating, developing and maintaining

motivation for work.

(vi) Reviewing and auditing manpower

management in an organisation.

(vii) Industrial relations research, carrying out studies

designed o explain employment behaviour andthereby effecting improvement in manpower

management.

Indian Institute of Personnel Management has

described the scope of human resource management in to

the following aspects:-

(i) Personnel Aspect:This aspect is comprised of the

activities concerned with manpower planning, recruitment,

selection, placement, induction, promotion, transfer,

demotion, separation, layoff, retrenchment, training and


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development, incentives and motivations, wage and salary

administration.

(ii) Welfare Aspect: This is concerned with the

conditions of work, and amenities such as the provision of

canteens, crches, housing, transport, medical, education,

recreational and cultural facilities, and health and safety

provisions.

(iii) Industrial Aspect: Industrial aspect is includes

activities which are concerned with trade union negotiations,

settlement of disputes, grievance handling, disciplinary

action, collective bargaining, joint consultation, benefits and

services such as insurance, unemployment security,sickness, leave, loan fund etc.

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The importance of human resource management can be

discussed from three standpoints, viz..

1. Social Significance: Proper management ofpersonnel enhances their dignity by satisfying their social

needs. This it done by:-

(i) Maintaining a balance between jobs available and

the jobseekers, according to the qualifications and

needs.

(ii) Providing suitable and most productive employment,

which might bring them psychological satisfaction.

(iii) Making maximum utilization of the resources in an

effective manner and paying the employee

reasonable compensation in proportion to the

contribution made by him.


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(iv) Eliminating waste or improper use of human

resource, through conservation of their normal

energy and health.

(v) By helping people make their own decisions that are

in their interests.

2. Professional Significance: By providing healthy

working environment it promotes team work in the

employees. This is done by:-

(i) Maintaining the dignity of the employee as a Human

Being.

(ii) Providing maximum opportunities for personal

development.(iii) Providing healthy relationship between different work

groups so that work is effectively performed.

(iv) Improving the employees working skill and capacity.

(v) Correcting the errors of wrong postings and proper

reallocation work.

3. Signification for individual Enterprise: Itcan help the organisation in accomplishing its goals by :-

(i) Creating right attitude among the employees

through effective motivation

(ii) Utilizing effectively the available human resources

(iii) Securing willing cooperation of the employees for

achieving goals of the enterprise and fulfilling their

own social and other psychological needs of

recognition, love, affection, belongingness, esteem

and self-actualisation.

Role of Personnel Function in an Organisation:


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The human resource department or personnel department is

set up under the leadership of human resource manager or

personnel manager. The human resource manager performs

the basic functions of the management such as Planning,

organising, directing and controlling. At the same time he

performs certain operative functions such as recruitment,

selection, training, placement etc. He has to play multiple

roles to bring efficiency in managing the human resources

and achieving human relations in the organisation.

In addition to the managerial and operative functions, some

of the important roles of the human resource manager in anorganisation are as follows:

1. Advisory Role: The personnel manager advises top

management on effective utilisation of human resources. As

a specialist the personnel manager advises the head of

different functional department on various aspect of humanresource management e.g. manpower planning, recruitment,

selection, training and development, performance appraisal

of individual and group behaviour.

2. Counselling role: The personnel manager plays

the role of a cousellor with the employees also. He discusses

the various problems of the employment relating to work,

career, their supervisors, collegues, health, family, financial,

social etc. suggest them means to minimize and over come

those problems.


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3. Role of a Change Agent: Personnel manager

works as a change agent regarding personnel areas. To be

an effective consultant, he should be familiar with the needs

and changing environment of the business. He should be

familiar with the needs and changing environment of

business. He should initiate and spearhead necessary

improvement in human resource policies. As a consultant, he

can provide necessary infrastructure and support for

organisation development. He helps in introducing and

implementing major institutional changes in origanisation.

4. The conscience role: While playing the consciousrole, the personnel manager informs the management about

the humanitarian approach. He should advise the

management about the moral and ethical obligations

towards the employees.

5. Mediators Role: The personnel manager oftenacts as a mediator in the organisation. Whenever there is a

friction between two employees, two groups of employees,

superior and subordinates and employees and management,

the personnel manager has to act as a mediator, so as to

maintain industrial harmony.

6. Liaison Role: the personnel manager acts as a

representative of the organisation so as to give an overall

picture of the organizational operations to the employees

particularly in case of industrial disputes or grievance

redressal. Similarly, he acts as employees representative in


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representing their problems to the management particularly

in concerns where trade unions are not there.

7. legal Role: The personnel manager plays this fire

fighting role of grievance handling settlement of disputes,

handling disciplinary cases, collective bargaining, joint

consultation, interpretation and implementation of various

labour laws, contracting lawyer regarding court cases, filling

suits in labour courts, industrial tribunals, civil courts and the

like.

8. Welfare Role: under section 49 of the Factories Act, awelfare officer has to be appointed in specific factories.

Personnel manager is expected to be the welfare officer of

the company. As a welfare officer he provides and maintains

canteen, hospitals, crches, educational institutions, clubs,

libraries, conveyance facilities, cooperative credit societies,

consumer stores etc.

9. Controller Role: the personnel manager assists the

line managers in effective implementation of personnel

policies and programmes. His advice and service is essential

for monitoring and controlling the progress. As an arm of the

top management, the personnel manager ensures that the

personnel policies and procedures approved and adopted by

the management are being consistently carried out in all the

departments.

10. Human Relation Role: Personnel manager is

supposed to be an expert in human relations. He is expected


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to improve productivity by fulfilling the economic, social and

psychological needs and aspirations of employees. Personnel

manager also has to meet the challenge of a fast changing

post industrial society

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HRM AND PERSONNEL

MANAGEMENT

Some people do not make a distinction between HRM and

personnel management. Both are taken to include identical

functions. Some even say that HRM is a dignified term for

personnel management. They consider HRM as old wine in anew bottle. However, there are thinkers who feel that HRM is

much more than personnel management. The very

philosophy of human resource management is different from

that of personnel management as discussed below:-

(i) Focus: Organisational interest is important inpersonnel management but, HRM projects the development

of individuals in accordance with their needs and aspirations

so that the individuals would be motivated to make their

best contribution towards the accomplishment of the

common goals. While personnel management was designed

to respond to the organizational objectives like profit

maximization, HRM visualized human element of enterprise

as important resource. Hence, development of human

resources is the most crucial aspect of human resource

management.


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(ii) Philosphy: HRM is primarily a philosophy, an

attitude, an approach, a policy and a practice; while

personnel management is viewed as a functional area of

management. HRM represents the humanisation of

management, while personnel management is concerned

with managing personnel.

(iii) Nature of Function: Personnel management has

been traditionally viewed as a staff function headed by

personnel manager who is responsible for procurement,

training, compensation and appraisal of personnel. On the

contrary, HRM is a part and parcel of every line function.Since the primary job of every manager is leading and

actuating, HRM can not be isolated from leading and

actuating. However, the traditional personnel function

included in HRM. Thus HRM includes not only manpower

planning, procurement, training, compensation and appraisal

etc, but also career planning and development, counseling,motivation and potential appraisal.

(iv) Pervasiveness: HRM is the concern of all

managers from top to bottom in an organisation, while

personnel management is mainly the concern of the

personnel manager.

(v) Motivation: HRM concentrates more on motivation,

morale-boosting and job satisfaction, while personnel

management is primarily concerned with selection,

recruitment and appraisal of personnel.


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(vi) Team Work: HRM is more concerned with working

with people, team building and team work; while personnel

management is interested in the orderly way of

administration of personnel policies and programs.

(vii) Techniques: Traditionally personnel manager

operated through pressure tactics and coercive measures

including threats of punishments . but HRM aims to achieve

workers cooperation through team building, mutual

understanding and motivation. HRM is, in fact , an integrated

approach to management of human resources in the

organisation.

3787.introduction to hrm

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