HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management (HRM, or sometimes abbreviated to HR) is concerned with all
aspects of how people are employed and managed in organizations. The term HRM has largely taken
over from that of personnel management, which took over from previous terminology including
labor or welfare management. In the 1980s, against a backdrop of economic recession and increased
pressures on firms because of globalization and the accelerated pace of change brought about by
technological developments, a number of academics began to think about people in organizations
from a different perspective. A combination of this thinking evolved into what became known as
human resource management.
There are many definitions of human resource management of varying degrees of complexity. Two
of the more meaningful are:
Human resource management is a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to the
employment, development and well-being of the people working in organizations
(Armstrong, 2016:7)
Human resource management is the process through which management builds the
workforce and tries to create the human performances that the organization needs. (Boxall
and Purcell, 2016:7)
First, the HRM is a strategic process having to do with the staffing, compensation, retention,
training, and employment law and policies side of the business. In other words, your job as human
resources (HR) manager will be not only to write policy and procedures and to hire people (the
administrative role) but also to use strategic plans to ensure the right people are hired and trained
for the right job at the right time.
So, Human resource management (HRM) is the process of employing people, training them,
compensating them, developing policies relating to them, and developing strategies to retain them.
As a field, HRM has undergone many changes over the last twenty years, giving it an even more
important role in today’s organizations.
THE GOALS OF HRM:
Support the organization in achieving its objectives by developing and implementing HR
strategies that are integrated with business strategy.
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.
THE HR FUNCTION
Above a certain size most organizations put in place a HR function. The basic objective of the
function is to provide the advice and services that support organizations and their managers to get
things done through people. The HR function may encompass one person or a whole department.
Armstrong and Taylor (2015:42) notes that ‘the role of HR professionals varies widely according to
the extent to which they are generalist (e.g. HR director, HR manager, HR officer) or specialist (e.g.
head of learning and development, head of talent management, head of reward), the level at which
they work (strategic, executive or administrative), the needs of the organization. HR management
is not a single homogenous occupation, rather, it involves a variety of roles and activities that differ
from one organization to another or even at different levels within the same organization.
Some functions of human resources are:
Identify how input in the area of people management demonstrably benefits them.
Involve them in the development and the testing of the practices.
Assess staff potential.
Establish communication, participation and training.
Establish work motivation, diagnostic and treatment of the work environment.
Ensure practices are not too complicated, bureaucratic or time-consuming.
Ensure their responsibilities are defined and communicated clearly.
Provide them with the guidance, support and training required to implement the practice.
Quality to processes
CURRENT CLASSIFICATION OF HR ROLES
According to R.L Mathis and J. H. Jackson (2010) several roles can be fulfilled by HR management.
The nature and extent of these roles depend on both what upper management wants HR
management to do and what competencies the HR staff have demonstrated. Three roles are
typically identified for HR. The focus of each of them, as shown in next figure is elaborated below:
