Human Resource ManagementDate: 04/24/12HRM Every day we go to work and we will cross path with someone who works for HR or if we walk pass HR. We get a bit nervous especially if we get a call from HR. Don??™t you ever wonder, what they really do, what goes on in HR office or what is HRM or Human Resources Management. Yes, we all know they fire and hire people but do we really know the functions of HRM Bakke (1996) wrote that; ???The general type of activity in any function of management??¦is to use resources effectively for an organizational objective??¦The function which is related to the understanding ,maintenance, development, effective employment, and integration of the potential in the resource of ???people??™ I shall call simply human resources function.
??? So, what is HRM According to Heathfield, Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Most pundits claim that HR shall be more effective in case of appropriate integration with specific organizational and environmental context, (Purcell and Boxall, 2000). Individuals such as Ferna?ndez & Sa?nchez (2005) are said to have grouped the contingency relationship under three generic categories namely: strategic, environmental and organization variable. Furthermore, they pointed out best HR practices that will best fit the business strategy and would yield increased organization performance (Niniger, 1980).
Organizational variable like size, structure, technology, (Jones, 1984) internal political relationships (Pfeffer and Cohen, 1984) and environmental variables like labor, technological change, competition and macro-economics (Kanter, 1983,) all the above mentioned people have made an impact on organizational strategy in HR. This shows that resource, capabilities and behavioral theory view of the business foster the development and improvement of contingency models. In addition, Boxall & Purcell (2000) have elaborated this argument. They have pointed out the best strategic model suiting the existing competitive strategy developed in line with flexibility of skill. The model have potential coping with uncertainty plus different competitive scenarios that may occur in the future thus, HR strategy should bring in the business current competitive goals plus the objectives.
This may require recruiting and motivating the employees in a competitive business. According to Guest (1997), efficient alignment and effective of human resource management practices brings out the positive effects on performance. This, he named ???fit-as-bundle??? approach.
The second approach is known as fit-as-gestalt an approach method that is identified by organization for gaining high performance. Human resource is crucial factor in a business. HRM is the one resource that has a large output than its input with use of motivation than any other resource. HRM controls better employee??™s relations and high morale. Also, HRM use behavioral theory to control evenly the difference with employees which will help an efficient and productive workplace.
As stated above are some roles of HRM but it also includes recruiting people, retaining and developing people and selecting. It may seems like a lot of functions but these are just a few and also there functions in HRM such as diversity and gender in a work place. Strategic management is being used currently in firms and because of its successfulness it has currently risen with most firms opting for it.
This in return has increased productivity in these firms. Employees are trained and given skills on how to go about their jobs thus increasing productivity.Conclusion In conclusion, we can say that firms that want to be branded as good performers and want to be able to compete and offer better services than their competitors, should introduce the policies of human resource which would develop skills, behavior and altitude of the employee which will transform them into better performers. Such firms should implement management systems that foster organization learning which would have positive effect on the firm??™s performance.ReferencesBakke,E W (1966) Bonds of Organization: An appraisal of corporate human relations,Achon,Hamden.Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2000).
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M. and Sa?nchez-Gardey, G. (2005). Strategic human resource management: integrating the universalistic, contingent, configurational and contextual perspectives.
The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 16, 5, 633-659.Wright, P., Dunford, B. and Snell, S.
(2001). Human resources and the resource based view of the firm. Journal of Management. 27, 6, 701 -721.