HRM for MBA Students

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HRM for MBA Students

• Lecture 1
• People management personnel management and human
  resource management

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Learning outcomes

• A good appreciation of the people management
  function in contemporary organisations
• Knowledge of human resource management (HRM)
  and personnel management (PM)
• An appreciation of the theoretical development of
  HRM
• Understanding of the relationship between HRM
  and business strategy
• An appreciation of the practical application of
  HRM
• Recognition of the themes of HRM in the early
  twenty-first century.

3

• People are the only real source of ...
  continuing competitive advantage.
• Prahalad and Hamel (1990)

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We can define people management as

• all the management decisions and actions that
  directly affect or influence people as members of
  the organisation rather than as job-holders.

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What do people managers do?

• Their role has specific objectives under four
  headings
• Staffing objectives
• Performance objectives
• Change management objectives
• Administration objectives
• Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2002)

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The Ulrich model of HRM

• Human Resources should become
• a strategic partner with top management
• an expert in administration
• a champion for employees
• an agent of continuous transformation
• Ulrich (1998)

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Building organisational capability is HRs
heartland and HR managers can help make
capitalism human

• Linda Holbech (2007 )

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Taylorism

• Principles of scientific management (1911)
• time and motion studies of work processes
• standardisation of tools, implements and methods
• increased division of labour
• Taylorism machine-paced work Fordism

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The evolution of people management
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Personnel management

• The first Industrial Revolution welfare role
• Rise of trade unionism industrial relations role
• Scientific management training sophisticated
  recruitment and selection
• Thus by the 1970s the Personnel management
  paradigm

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Human resource management

• Loss of faith in traditional mass-production
  techniques
• The example of Japanese quality
• Technological development
• Thus by the 1990s the (post-Taylorist) HRM
  paradigm

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Perspectives in management

• Unitarist
• Conflict is wrong
• Pluralist
• Conflict is not wrong but must be managed
• Radical/critical
• Conflict is inevitable ... and may be right

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The Harvard model of HRM
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Ideal types of PM and HRM
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HRM in practice

• Evidence of significant adoption of HRM practices
  
• (Workplace Employee Relations Surveys and others)
• But still two traditions or paradigms
• Most organisations share characteristics of both
• But HRM is in the ascendant

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Key themes in HRM

• High-involvement employee work practices
• Flexible organisation (core and periphery)
• Micro-level work organisation (teamworking)
• Sophisticated HR for recruitment
• Unitarist employee relations
• Change management
• The learning organisation
• Knowledge management
• Leadership