CHRESO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

NAMES STUDENT NO:

 NATASHA MULENGA CU 18010273

 MWANSA MUKELA
 PAULEEN BANDA
 NANCY CHIYABA
 GRACE CHANDA
 JIMMY SIMPOKOLWE
 NAOMY KAPUNZA
 NAOMY MULENGA
 NYAMBE MUYATWA
 MAGRET CHEWE
 DEBORAH PHIRI
 CHIPO CHAMBESHI
 WILSON CHIKONDE
 PETER MWANSA
 GRACE M’HANGO
 WENDY CHUULU
 RUTH NTHALA
 JOSEPHENE KATONGO
 ELIZABETH MBEWE
 SERAH NYIRENDA

QUESTION: DISCUSS HOW HUMAN RESOURSE MANAGEMENT HAS EVOLVED OVER THE
YEARS UPTO THE PRESENT.

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INTRODUCTION

Human Resource is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization
and department responsible for managing resources related to employees. From this definition,
we can deduce human resource management as the practice of recruiting, hiring, deploying and
managing an organization’s employees. However, this assignment outlines the evolution of
Human resource management, how it has evolved over the years and how it started up to the
current time.

Human resource management is primarily concerned with how people are managed within
organizations focusing on policies and systems whereas human resource departments and units in
organizations are typically responsible for a number of activities including employee
recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewarding. For example,
managing pay and benefit systems.

Evolution of Human Resource Management

Human resource has evolved from many terms and functions such as human capital, laborers,
personnel and currently human resources. The few changes in these terms also mean changes in
the way human resource managers plan their strategies in managing employees.

The origin of workforce management lies in the arrangements made for the welfare of
apprentices working with the master craftsmen in the putting out system that prevailed during the
medieval ages. The industrial revolution that led to the establishment of factories displaced the
putting out system. The workers in the early factories faced long hours of work under extremely
unhygienic conditions and mostly lived in slums.

This soon resulted in several labor riots, the most famous being Ladd’s riots of 1811 in
Nottingham England precipitated by reduced wages. The government soon intervened to provide
basic rights and protections for workers and the need to comply with such statutory regulations
forced factory owners to set up a formal mechanism to look into workers’ wages and welfare and
redress other issues concerning labor.

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The human resource management profession continues to evolve originally conceived to handle
personnel hiring and payment. The function now aligns closely with a company's strategic plan
and to get the respect the department deserves, human resource managers need to respond to the
challenges of lacking power, maintaining a delicate balance between management and
employees and handling the workforce in difficult circumstances. Klerck, 2009.

Labor Relations

Beginning in the 1900s during the Industrial Revolution, a company’s managers tended to treat
people as interchangeable and when disputes arose, mediators intervened to solve problems.
Today, this function involves negotiating and administering collective-bargaining agreements
with unions as well as providing training, support and advice to managers and supervisors on
labor issues.

Industrial Relations

After World War I in the 1920s, workers’ rights and formal rights emerged, this field
concentrates on developing scientific knowledge, solving problems and dealing with ethical
issues. Today as fewer unions exist, most companies do not have an industrial relations function.

Personnel Administration

After World War II in the 1940s, personnel administration focused on efficiency improvements.
During the 1960s this function evolved to ensure legal compliance which also included
recruiting, hiring, training and assessing workers and failure to comply with regulations put
companies at risk. Personnel administrative tasks focused on completing paperwork to prevent
this.

Human Resources

In the 1980s human resource management included the application of new theories related to
change management, motivation and team building. During this period many companies
experienced mergers and acquisitions and this led to increased attention on optimizing the
workforce. Additionally, the use of computers led to the rise of automated procedures and Web-
based human resource systems.

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Organizational Capability

According to management expert Dave Ulrich, successful human resource management aligns
human resource and business strategy. Currently human resource departments focus less on the
transactional operations of personnel administration and pay more attention to recruiting the right
employees, training and developing the workforce and managing performance. Ulrich’s four-
quadrant model places administrative experts in the lower-left quadrant and employee relations
experts appear in the lower-right quadrant. These two lower quadrants reflect a day-to-day
operational focus in the organization.

Industrial Era Human resource

The 20th century witnessed severe labor unrest due to the employment-at-will doctrine and
yellow-dog contracts that allowed employers to fire employees at will. These rules also restricted
employees from participating in union activities because of frequent strikes and lack of
manpower, companies instituted personnel departments to perform administrative activities
related to employees.

This was the time labor unions became prevalent, and the personnel department was used to
resolve wage-related issues and other differences between the union and management. The
personnel manager was responsible for employee attendance, labor-dispute management and
general compliances of employee health and safety requirements but the recruitment section of
the personnel department dealt mainly with selecting labor employees along with a few salaried
professionals. Paauwe & Boon, 2009.

21st Century Human resource

Changes in the economic conditions of the 21st century brought about the need for human
resource to take on additional responsibilities, human resource staff therefore began actively
participating in business decision-making by sharing a seat at the management table to help
determine when to downsize, outsource, retrain and recruit suitable talent. Human resource staff
also participates in managing the cost of employee benefits such as insurance and pension and in
handling other issues and activities such as creating and documenting policy, assisting with
employee-related litigation and ensuring compliance with employment laws such as the

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Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Helping to determine the companies' overall
direction, human resource departments focus on building organizational capabilities using
employee management and development strategies that align with organizational goals.

Information Age Human resource

The invention of new technologies and improvements on old ones has introduced a way for
businesses to work across international borders. Thus, information technologies and
globalization has changed business processes and opened up new avenues and challenges for
human resources. While the costs are reduced and manpower is abundant, human resources areas
experienced unforeseen challenges which include difficulties in managing employees dispersed
across the globe, adjusting to new cultures and allocating resources in a timely manner.

Human resource departments changed again to adapt to the information age and stay above the
manpower challenges. The evolution of human resource also looks at the future in which the
working world has made incredible strides in the past 100 years and is set to make progress in
the next century. Here are seven key areas human resource management of the future will focus
on:
Strategic career development. Career development is a huge opportunity for employees not
only because it makes the current workforce more adept at the job but because it’s an effective
tactic for employee recruitment and retention. Failing to intellectually challenge your team
causes them to look elsewhere.
automation. Computers are now able to replicate processes once reserved for the human brain a
game changer for all kinds of work. By delegating tedious work to computer automation, human
resource professionals can dedicate more time to helping their people flourish as employees and
people.
Technology. According to the 2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends study, human
resource is not just a support system, they are now being asked to help lead the digital
transformation sweeping organizations worldwide. Specifically, the report states that
organizations will invest more in modern communications tools and bring the same sense of
experimentation and innovation that the tech-focused branches of their companies utilize.
Haslinda, A,2009.

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CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the future of human resource management puts emphasis on humans as a resource
and the best way to emphasize the importance of a unified, thriving workforce is to build the
culture that ties everyone together. According to management expert Dave Ulrich, successful
human resource management aligns human resource and business strategy. Currently, human
resource departments focus less on the transactional operations of personnel administration and
pay more attention to recruiting the right employees, training and developing the workforce and
managing performance.

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