APPROACHES TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
As a field of study, human resource management has a number of
approaches that can help us to understand it. They include the
Mechanical/Commodity approach, paternalistic approach, social systems
approach, Map of human resource territory approach and others. For the
purposes of this module, we shall concentrate on only three of the above.
These are:

o The Mechanic/Commodity Approach

This is one of the oldest approaches to human resource management. The

approach views human resource just like any other resource or factors of
production in an organization such as materials, equipment etc. the approach
is called mechanical because it takes human resource like machines that can
be programmed to perform certain functions. To some extent, some of the
assumptions of this approach are based on Fredrick Taylor’s scientific
management and Daglas Macgregor’s theory x: the approach is based on the
following assumptions:

- That the ordinary human being does not want to work and if given a
chance he may avoid it, therefore he/she has to be given specific tasks
and must be ordered to perform them. If the task is not performed,
then sanctions must be applied.

- For effective performance, there must be specialization in the

organization. Each individual must know what he or she is expected
to do and how to do it so that sanctions can be appropriately applied
in case of failure.

- There must be a chain of command in the organization to avoid

confusion. Each person must know the organization structure for easy
 command based on hierarchy.

- In the case of the superiors, there must be a span of control or

- appropriate number of subordinates reporting to one supervisor

for easy supervision

- The motivation is based more on money than any other non-

financial rewards.

o Benefits of the Mechanical Approach to Human Resource

Management
The main benefits of this approach are:

- It can minimize what Taylor referred to as soldering at

work.

- It can improve productivity to some extent when supervising

manual work which is easy to measure.

Criticisms of the Mechanical Approach to Human Resource

Management

This approach has been criticized on the following grounds:

- Human beings cannot be treated like machines that can

be programmed because they have feelings and
motives that can change over time depending on the
situation. For instance human beings may responds to
similar orders differently from different supervisors
depending on their relationship.
- Money is not the only motivator. People can also be
motivated by other non financial factors such as social
 factors e.g. emotional support from friends, Job
enrichment, respect, recognition love etc.

- The approach is not appropriate for supervising

professional jobs like those of doctors and researchers
where you cannot set deadlines.

o The Paternalistic Approach to Human resource management

This is an approach which tries to move away from the assumptions of
the mechanical approach, in other words it seems to be its opposite. It
is called paternalistic because it regards management as a parent who
should provide for his children (the employees). The approach is
concerned with how to accommodate various needs of human beings
since needs have a lot of influence in the behavior of workers hence
the need to take them into consideration when analyzing human
resource management. This approach is based on the following
assumptions:

- Most human beings value participative type of management

therefore, as much as possible must be consulted when making
decisions affecting them.

- Motivation of workers requires more than money alone. People

join organizations to achieve different objectives of which money
is one of them. For instance, people need health care services,
housing, and transport. Pension schemes etc.

- Since the organization has a variety of people who make- up the

labour force, it should provide for these varying interests and
objectives.

Criticisms of the Paternalistic Approach

- The major criticism of this approach is that it misleads and
confuses workers by making them believe that the
 management is for them when in reality it is not as it promotes
false democracy where management still makes the final
decisions.

- It creates a dependence syndrome on the organization and

makes it difficult for workers to make rational decisions
regarding their employment prospects.

- To some extent the weaknesses of this approach are the

strengths of the mechanistic approach and vice versa.

o The Map of the Human Resource Management Approach

This approach is similar to the social systems approach. It views the

organization as system consisting of interrelated parts. The map of the
human resource management territory is one of the modern approaches
to human resource management. The approach was developed by Beer
and his associates in 1984 at Harvard University. The approach
recognizes that there are a variety of stakeholders in the corporation,
which include share holders, trade unions, the government, customers
and the community. As a result, the creation of human resource
management strategies and policy choices like work systems, reward
systems, etc, requires taking into consideration the interests of various
stakeholders and situational factors. The situational factors include
workforce characteristics, business conditions, management
philosophy, labour market, technology, laws and social values.

Task: What are the Benefits and Criticisms of this approach?

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

Introduction
In the last topic, we discussed three approaches to the understanding
of human resource management. In this topic, we are going to discuss
one of the activities of human resource management which falls under
resource acquisition. This activity is known as human resource
planning.
You may agree that “In an ideal world managers plan their human resource
requirements. Just as they plan any other resources. They try to ensure that they have
right numbers of people in the right place at the right time to deliver the organization’s
strategic plan”.

o Meaning and Purpose of Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning refers to a process of analyzing an organization’s

human resource needs and developing human resource policies appropriate
to the longer term effectiveness of the organisation. It takes place under
changing situations. It is systematic and continuous.

Human Resource Planning is not isolated from the corporate plan in fact it is
considered to be an integral part of corporate planning and budgeting. This
view is based on the consideration that human resource costs and forecasts
both affect and are affected by long term corporate plans of any organization.

From the above, we can identify the key aspects of human resource planning
as follows:

- It does not happen by accident as it is systematic and part of a

conscious and planned process.

- It is a continuous process, because the organization and its objectives,

as well as the environment in which it operates keep on changing.

- It is both short term and long term but with emphasis on the need to
plan for longer team it therefore considers both short and long term
plans.

- It is not independent of corporate plans because It is closely related to,

 and integrated with, the corporate planning process which in the long
run will determine the organization’s policies and priorities that may be
affected by the availability of human resource or people.

- The resource requirements will need to be assessed in both quantitative

and qualitative terms.

- The resource planned for should be at the level required for

organizational effectiveness meaning that there shouldn’t be a shortage
or surplus. This is important in ensuring organizational efficiency.

O JUSTIFICATIONS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

There are a number of reasons in support of undertaking human resource

planning. Effective human resource planning is important because it may
ensure that the organisation is:

- able to attract and retain staff in sufficient numbers and with

appropriate skills to be able to operate effectively and achieve its
corporate objectives.

- fully utilizes the staff employed as it will ensure that there will be no
shortages or surpluses of people.

- able to ensure that employees receive all the training and development
necessary for effective performance in their current roles and develop
the flexibility to be able to undertake other roles as the needs arise.

- able to a large extent to meet future human resource requirements

from its own internal resources.

- In control of human resource costs and effectively anticipates the

staffing costs of any new initiatives to be undertaken.

- able to anticipate the problems of potential surpluses or deficits of

 people.

o PROBLEMS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

In spite of the many reasons in support of human resource planning, you may
agree with the view that it is not a cure to all problems of human resource
surpluses and shortages this is because it is more complex than planning
other resources due to the fact that:

- People are all different so it is difficult to come up policies and

approaches that are equally appropriate to all for instance, different
employees may prefer different policies.

- People are unpredictable as they can derail plans through a number of

actions like resignations, natural wastage, absenteeism etc.

- The organization’s requirement is for different numbers of very specific

types of people such as accountants, plumber, electricians etc.

- Unlike money, people are less easy to move from one location to
another when required.

- Surpluses and deficits of people are more difficult to manage as

employees numbers cannot be reduced without resistance and
acquiring more people can be time consuming and costly.

Reference

Cushway Barry, Human Resource Management. Kogan Page Limited,

London, 1994.

o THE PLANNING PROCESS

Usually this consists of four clear steps

 a) Forecasting future needs/demand forecasting
b) Analyzing the availability of supply of people
c) Drawing up plans to match supply to demand (Action planning)
d) Monitoring the implementation of the plan.

O DEMAND FORECASTING

This is a process of estimating the organisation’s future staffing

requirements. This is in terms of numbers and skills, taking into account of
changes in working practices and activity levels in the organisation.

Demand forecasting mostly uses 4 methods

- Managerial judgement
- Ratio-trend analysis
- Work study
- Modeling

Managerial Judgment

This is the typical method of forecasting used. It involves managers deciding

their future workloads and on this basis decide how many people they may
need. And the specific skills they should have.

Managerial judgment has two approaches, these are the top-down and bottom
up approaches.

Top-down

This is when the forecasts are prepared by top management in an

organisation and is with consultation with the Human Resource
Department. These forecasts are reviewed and agreed with
departmental managers.
 The advantage of this approach is that it reflects senior management
views . The problem with this approach is that it may not reflect what
is obtaining on the ground.

Bottom-up

This is when junior managers submit proposals for agreement by senior

management.
The problem with this approach is that the junior managers may
exaggerate the expected activities to avoid too much work which may
result in over-employment of people.
A combination of the two is highly recommended.

a. Ratio Trend Analysis

This method is carried out by studying past ratios between for example
the number of direct (production) workers and indirect (support)
workers.
Direct workers are those involved in the core business of an
organisation e.g. lecturers at a university. Indirect workers are the
supportive stuff in an organisation e.g. Administrative stuff at a
university.

On the basis of the ratio, management can determine indirect workers

once direct workers are known.
e.g 3:1 or 2:1
6: 4:2
8: 6:3

While this method is quick and easy to apply, the problem is that is
relying on having accurate records and on accurate predictions of
future workloads these are normally not easy to predict.

Work Study
 This method can be used to measure how long in terms of standard
hours it will take to complete certain tasks. E.g. through time studies
from this the employer can calculate how many employers will be
required to achieve the required levels of productivity.

The main advantage of work study is that it can be effective when

measuring standard tasks like of manual workers. Its weakness is
that it cannot be used to measure administrative or professional work
e.g. Doctors or Researchers.

Modeling

This is done with the help of computers to simulate real life situations
and if properly done can help in the preparation of demand and supply
forecasts.

o SUPPLY FORECASTING

This entails assessing the number of people likely to be available

from within and outside the organisation (i.e. the internal and
external labour market. The supply analysis covers;

- existing human resource

- potential changes to existing resource through promotions
- effects of changing conditions of work
- sources of supply from within the organisation
- sources of supply outside the organisation in the national
and local labour markets.
- Institutions of learning like colleges, universities etc.