Human Resource Management in a Business Context
3rd edition

by Alan Price

Human Resource Management in a Business Context provides an international focus on the theory and practice of people management. A thorough and comprehensive overview of all the key aspects of HRM, including case studies, articles from HRM Guide and other sources, key concepts, review questions and problems for discussion and analysis.
Price and delivery details:
Amazon.co.uk - UK pounds
Amazon.com - US dollars
Amazon.ca - Canadian dollars
Amazon.de - Euros
Amazon.fr - Euros

HRM Guide Sections

HRM Guide Australia

HRM Guide Canada

HRM Guide NZ

HRM Guide UK

HRM Guide USA

Introduction Overview of HRM Guide

HRM Guide Updates Latest updates on the HRM Guide websites

Jobs and Careers Advice, job postings and leads

HRM Topics Hundreds of pages of information, updates and links to articles

HR Directory Links to HR service providers

HR News Releases Announcements, news, reports

Human resource management has been presented as a radical alternative to personnel management (...) consisting of exciting, modern ideas which would replace the stale and ineffective prescriptions of personnel management. In fact, the process of transition has been slow.

 

But top companies are thinking hard about their HR function. See  Optimizing the organization of HRM  on HRM Guide USA

Fitz-Enz (1994) argues that businesses can adopt one of three approaches to HRM, offering the practitioner one of three career choices:

• Zombies: Those which take the traditional 'staff as expense' approach to people management. Estimating that 30-50% of companies took this approach, especially small-medium, family-owned enterprises described as the 'living dead' with no real professionalism in any of their managerial activities.
• Reactors: Where line-managers have grabbed back HR responsibilities as they have (probably) never seen a professional HR function. Fitz-Enz describes this as the 'outsource-decentralize' model. Line managers don't really want some of the HR responsibilities but think they have no alternative. Perhaps 20-30% of organizations followed this approach.
• Confidants: A small, trusted group of HR talents are in place as trusted experts, consultants and brokers of external services. Fitz-Enz regards this as the most desirable, again perhaps 20-30% of organizations.

Ferris (1999) argues that 'strategic HRM, international HRM, and political influences on HRM, appear to be the three dominant perspectives that theory and research in HRM have taken in the past 15 years.'

Addressing the future, he argues that there are 'multitudes of interesting questions to ask and research streams to develop and pursue' for HRM scholars. And Ferris goes on to say that: "We have perhaps never witnessed more intellectually stimulating times in this field than the present, and it encourages (no, demands!) creative, innovative, uninhibited, and nonlinear thinking if we are to make significant contributions to new knowledge, and truly develop a more informed understanding of HRM."

Similarly for HRM practitioners, there are 'exciting opportunities to make a difference.' But practitioners are continually faced with escalating demands from their organizations to be 'accountable and demonstrate tangible and quantifiable bottom-line impact.' So he sees HRM as both a demanding and rewarding profession - but not one for the timid and faint of heart. Whereas businesses in the past would tolerate a 'welfarist' personnel function, modern organizations expect strategic business partners who:

• are HR professionals anticipating and articulating key HRM opportunities and challenges
• are internal experts proactively dealing with the business environment, embracing and leading change
• can that 'HRM is, indeed, the source of sustained competitive advantage.'

Ferris concurs with Ulrich (1997) in seeing effective practitioners as "Human Resource Champions", concluding that 'HRM will be a "mentality" or way of thinking, so pervasive that it is interwoven into the very fabric of organizations, and integral to all of its decisions and actions.'

References

* Ferris, G.R. (1999) 'Human resources management: some new directions.(Yearly Review of Management)', Journal of Management, May-June, 1999.

Fitz-Enz, J. (1994) How To Measure Human Resource Management (McGraw-Hill Training Series) , McGraw-Hill.

* Ulrich, D. (1997) Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, Harvard Business School

  The impact of Technology. Technology is playing an increasing role in HRM, particularly through the use of Intranets and Human Resource Information Systems .

See also: Web-based HR systems

  Previous page 
 
  Next page