People and Organizations: Principles and Practice in Global Contexts

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Human Resource Management (HRM)

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the process of managing people in organization in a planned method. HRM is simply known as Human Resources (HR). Human Resources are the people in an organization, who employs to do various job roles, responsibilities & functions for wages, salaries & other benefits. According to Armstrong (2010) “HRM can be described as a strategic, integrated & coherent approach to the employment, development & well-being of the people working in organizations”. In Armstrong’s view of above the role of HRM has become more significant in most organizations. Some times HR refereed as personal management.

Difference between HRM & Personnel Management

Personnel management is a traditional system of managing people & HRM is a modern or latest way of managing people & their skills in the organization. Personnel management is basically like an administrative part of recording of people. Human Resources are responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources, which contribute to achieve its goals. HR Department of lot of government organizations in Sri Lanka do personnel management. They are doing only recruiting, preparing salaries, maintaining & recording of in out times, managing & handling staff leave etc. But HR has lot of functions in addition to the personnel management, which is currently use by lot of established private organizations.

Basic Human Resource functions:

Staff members of an organization do lot of activities & functions. The main role of human resource management in organization is to organize or manage these staff members effectively to perform these activities & functions as expected by the management. Armstrong & Taylor (2015) have suggested various methods, in which organizations can materialize proper implementation of HR practices by line managers. Following are the basic HR functions, which are commonly used by most organizations.

1. Job analysis & job design:

This is the procedure of creating specific job role of the organization, which includes job description, job responsibilities, required knowledge & skills to perform that specific job successfully. Currently there should to be detailed job analysis for job designing.

2. Recruitment & selection:

This is the process of selecting & screening of potential & qualified candidates based on required criteria for a particular job. The main target of this process is to attract the qualified & most suitable persons for the job.

3. Training & development:

This is a main function of HR & has the responsibility to give proper training & development opportunities for the selected staff members to perform their duties well. Then the staff members have confidence enough to do their duties well. 

4. Compensation & Benefits:

HR should make proper & required compensation & benefits for the staff members considering their job roles. This is another main function of HR & currently it has become more important. Job market is very competitive & skills & talented staff have huge demand from competitive organizations.    

5. Employee Relations:

HR needs to align the employee's needs & rights with the needs of the organization. Employee - employer relations are more important to achieve final set goals of the organization.

Conclusion:

Today the HRM plays a very important role in the organization. HRM can improve employee’s motivation & pay attention to organization’s procedures & requirements, which increase the efficiency of organization & achieve end goals & ambitions of the organization.   

References:

Armstrong M (2010), Armstrong’s Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management, London.
Armstrong M and Taylor S (2015), Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, London: Kogan Page

Fombrun C, Tichy N and Devanna M (1984), Strategic Human Resource Management, New York.