Path ahead to Human Resource Management via globalisation and ethics

Organizations that seek better competitive advantage today, pay more attention to its people and treat them as resource. Human Resource management is a kind of philosophy which is supported by theories, focusing behavior of people and organization. Institutional theory, Human capital theory, Motivation, The resource based view, contingency theory etc. (Amstronge, 2006) Golobalisation and ethics play key role in path ahead of human resource management.

Welfare Movement

In early years, in the industrial revolution of 18^th century, organizations consider their workforce as same as the other factors of production process and viewed as a cost to the business. Therefore people in the organizations had to work hard with prolonged working hours. At that time some large manufacturing companies like Cadbury, Rowntree, and Liver which valued their workers paid more concern about welfare of their employees therefore in that era personnel had a welfare role by provisions of health and education of employees. This was a voluntary effort of aforesaid large companies practiced.

After the industrial revolution production was done in large volumes and labor force requirement increased. Therefore unskilled and semi - skilled workers also entered to the labor force and it was required to increase efficiency of the production. The scientific management theory became into the scene and it was focused to increase economic efficiency and especially labour productivity by analyzing and synthesizing workflows.

Scientific Management

Frederick
W.
Taylor (1856‐1915)
,Henry
L.
Gantt (1861‐1919)
,
and
Frank
and
Lillian
Gilbreth (1868‐1924
and
1878‐1972) who belonged to Scientific Management school, 
developed
principles
known
as
scientific
 management
theory. Frederick Taylor, known as the father of scientific management was identified the skills needed for a particular job and would hire and train workers to perform to the required standards. Employees were rewarded with a ‘differential piece rate’ pay system that rewarded work output. Taylor’s ‘time and motion’ studies, which would find the ‘one best way’ of performing a task.

A large scale car manufacturer, Henry Ford continued with the scientific management approach and developed an assembly line where the workers were allowed a minimum amount of time to complete a task before the car moved to the next stage in the production process.

Figure 1 : Evolution of HR Management

The human relations movement

Human relations movement was the key stone of modern human resource management. It was considered the group behavior and employees feelings. Elton Mayo’s and the famous Hawthorne experiments in human relations movement shifted the view of people management away from the mechanistic principles of scientific management and towards a behavioral approach of satisfying the social needs of workers. The human relations movement which proposed the view that the social side of work was important for improving performance.

During 1945 to 1960 employee productivity was an important factor concerned. Various motivation techniques, considering welfare issues, creating job descriptions to improve recruitment and selection, compensation evaluation strategies, official recognition of trade unions and increasing collective bargaining for welfare increases were the attempts of increase employee productivity. During this period employment laws were enacted.

Human Resource Management Approach

Human resource management is an important function of top management and it is integrated with the vision and strategy of the organisation today. Human resource management differ from personal management in its focus, principles and applications.

Personnel Management	Human Resource management
Traditional approach in managing people in the organization.	Modern approach in managing people and their strengths in the organization.
Focusses on personnel administration, employee welfare and labor relation.	Focuses on acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance of the human resources of the organization
Assumes people as an input for achieving desired output.	Assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving desired output.
Personnel function is undertaken for employee’s satisfaction.	Administrative function is undertaken for goal achieving.
Job design is done on the basis of division of labour.	Job design function is done on the basis of group work/ team work.
Employees are provided with less training and development	Employees are provided with more training and development.
Management decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulations of the organization.	Management decisions are made collectively after considering employee’s participation, authority, decentralization, competitive environment etc.
Focusses on increased production and satisfied employees.	Focusses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employee’s participation.
Concerned with personnel manager	Concern with all level  of managers from top to bottom
PM is a routing function	HRM is a strategic function

The 1980s also saw the term ‘human resource management’ (HRM) introduced. The meaning of the term has led to many debates and academic discussions. To some, it was seen as a way of minimizing the trades unions’ influence, and the name change from ‘personnel’ symbolized this. Others saw HRM as a more strategic role in the achievement of organizational objectives, with an HR director at board level.

There are four generic processes or functions of HRM.

1.      Selection

2.      Performance appraisal

3.      Rewards.

4.      Development

Strategic Human Resource Management Approach

In SHRM, human resources strategies are integrated with other business strategies of the organisation in order to achieve organizational objectives. This vertical integration is favourable but it will be difficult to achieve due to Diversity of strategic processes, levels and styles, the complexity of the strategy formulation process, the evolutionary nature of business strategy, the absence of articulated business strategies, and the qualitative nature of HR issues.

Resource based view in SHRM is mostly applied. Human Resources are equally considered as other resources of the organisation. Find, absorb, and retain skillful staff is a challenge to modern organisation as it is necessary for acquire competitive advantage. Therefore it is oncerned eith the resource based strategy of HRM. 

Policies and processes fall into four areas as described in Harvard model of strategic HRM. 

1. Employee influence 

2. Human resource flow. 

3. Rewards systems.

4. Work systems. 

(Hrmguide.co.uk,2018)

A New Era for HR:  http://hrexecutive.com/new-beginnings/ 

Globalisation and HRM
World population is increasing and employability opportunities are shrinking. Labour market is changing continuously within dynamic environment. Female workers percentage is increasing and union membership is declining. Employment is production sector are decreasing while service sector employments have more demand. Mechanization and automation restricts employment opportunities in production sector but growth in disposable per capita income raise the demand in service sector.

Globalisation affect to change in industry profiles and modern labour market. Globalisation integrates and trigger movement in labour, capital, goods and services across the borders. Partial and full trade agreements allow custom tariffs and tax free movement in these elements and therefore HRM practices show similarities in modern world. Multinational companies also exhibits similar HRM practices across countries. Union membership is decreasing due to the globalisation all over the world .Therefore HR management in new millennium is seamless and dynamic in nature. 

Ethical context of HRM 

Ethical dimension in HRM emerged from welfare movement of large manufacturing companies in 18th century and human relation movement and human resource management are in evolutionary process. HR has a mediatory role in individual ethics and business ethics. Business ethics are important in increasing company reputation, employee loyalty and legal considerations. Therefore today organisations are promoting business ethics.

Ethical issues may rise in employment relationship including ethics of discrimination and employee’s rights and duties. Decline of trade unionism and more individualist approaches brought ethics into core of HRM in western societies. Because declining the collectivism put employees vulnerable to opportunistic and unethical behavior of employers and claimed necessity of HR ethics (Pinnington, Macklin, and Campbell, 2007).

Reference and Bibliography
2012books.lardbucket.org.(2012) Beginning Management of Human Resources. Available at: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-management-of-human-resources/s05-01-what-is-human-resources.htm (Accessed: 23 March 2018)

Armstrong, M (2006) A hand book of Human resource management practice. Kogan page limited: Philadelphia. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/download/40688191/Armstrong_s_Handbook_of_Human_Resource_Management_Practice_by_Michael_Armstrong_Stephen_Taylor.pdf (Accessed: 30.March 2018)

Hrmguide.co.uk (2018) The Harvard map of HRMo. Available at: http://hrmguide.co.uk/introduction_to_hrm/harvard-map.htm (Accessed: 23 March 2018)

Ibfbd.org. (2018)The role of Human Resource Management :part 1. Available at:http://ibfbd.org/img/resource/1491117375_SampleChapter_01.pdf (Accessed: 23.03.2018)

Pinnington, A., Macklin, R., & Campbell, T. (Eds.). (2007). Human resource management: Ethics and employment. Oxford University Press.