KEY LEARNING POINTS: THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

HRM Defined

Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with all aspects of how people are employed and
managed in organizations.

Goals of HRM

The goals of HRM are to:

support the organization in achieving its objectives by developing and implementing human
resource (HR) strategies that are integrated with the business strategy (strategic HRM);

contribute to the development of a high-performance culture;

ensure that the organization has the talented, skilled and engaged people it needs; create a
positive employment relationship between management and employees and a climate of mutual
trust;

encourage the application of an ethical approach to people management.

Philosophy of HRM

The beliefs of HRM included the assumptions that it is the human resource that gives competitive edge,
that the aim should be to enhance employee commitment, that HR decisions are of strategic importance
and that therefore HR policies should be integrated into the business strategy (Storey, 2001: 7).

Underpinning Theories

Human resource management appears to lean heavily on theories of commitment and motivation and
other ideas derived from the field of organizational behaviour (Guest, 1987: 505).

The Diversity of HRM

Many HRM models exist, and practices within different organizations are diverse, often only
corresponding to the conceptual version of HRM in a few respects.

Reservations about HRM

On the face of it, the concept of HRM has much to offer, at least to management. But reservations have
been expressed about it. There may be something in these criticisms, but the fact remains that as a
description of people management activities in organizations HRM is here to stay, even if it is applied
diversely or only used as a label to describe traditional personnel management practices.
 KEY LEARNING POINTS: STRATEGIC HRM
The Conceptual Basis of Strategic

HRM Strategic HRM is the interface between HRM and strategic management. It takes the notion of HRM
as a strategic, integrated and coherent approach and develops that in line with the concept of strategic
management (Boxall, 1996).

The Fundamental Characteristics of Strategy

Forward looking.

The organizational capability of a firm depends on its resource capability.

Strategic fit the need when developing HR strategies to achieve congruence between them
and the organizations business strategies within the context of its external and internal
environment.

How Strategy is Formulated

An emergent and flexible process of developing a sense of direction, making the best use of resources and
ensuring strategic fit.

The Aim of SHRM

To generate organizational capability by ensuring that the organization has the skilled, engaged,
committed and well-motivated employees it needs to achieve sustained competitive advantage.

Implications of The Resource-Based View (RBV)

The RBV emphasizes the importance of creating firms that are more intelligent and flexible than their
competitors (Boxall, 1996) by hiring and developing more talented staff and by extending the skills base.