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.
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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

The first part of this book introduces the essential elements of human resource management (HRM), its origins and application. HRM is viewed as an all-embracing term describing a number of distinctive approaches to people management. Part 1 helps you to understand and evaluate the different and sometimes ambiguous views of HRM by investigating its origins, explanatory models, technology and practice.

The chapters in Part 1 address a number of specific issues:

• Where do the fundamental concepts of HRM come from?
• Is HRM here to stay or is it just another management fad?
• What distinguishes HRM from other approaches to managing people - particularly personnel management?
• Is HRM a coherent and integrated approach to managing people?
• How prevalent is HRM?
• What is the link between HRM and high-performance?
• HRM and 'knowledge management'
• How has technology changed the practice and delivery of HRM?
• Does its use lead to greater organizational effectiveness?

People management

In chapter 1 we set out to understand the purpose of human resource management (HRM), how it developed, and the range of tasks covered by human resource specialists. Arguably, human resource management (HRM) has become the dominant approach to people management in English-speaking countries. But it is important to stress that HRM has not 'come out of nowhere'. There is a long history of attempts to achieve an understanding of human behaviour in the workplace. Throughout the twentieth century and earlier, practitioners and academics developed theories and practices to explain and influence human behaviour at work. Human resource management has absorbed ideas and techniques from a wide range of these theories and practical tools. In effect, HRM is a synthesis of themes and concepts drawn from a long history of work, more recent management theories and social science research.

Over and over again, managers must deal with events that are clearly similar but also different enough to require fresh thinking. For example:

businesses expand or fail;

they innovate or stagnate;

they may be exciting or unhappy organizations in which to work;

finance has to be obtained;

workers have to be recruited;

new equipment is purchased, eliminating old procedures and introducing new methods;

staff must be re-organized, retrained or dismissed.

Some items we have listed are clearly to do with people management (for example, recruiting or re-organizing staff). Others - such as innovation or stagnation - are less obviously so. However, they are likely to be affected by having trained, motivated people with suitable skills in place. Some seem irrelevant to HRM, and you might have identified 'raising finance' in this category. But compare two businesses: one has an excellent industrial relations record with no strikes or disputes, another has many such problems which have been reported in the media. For which company would you find it easier to raise extra finance? Businesses are made up of people and there is no business activity that might not be touched on by HRM.

Human resource management draws on many sources for its theories and practices. Sociologists, psychologists and management theorists, especially, have contributed a constant stream of new and reworked ideas. They offer theoretical insights and practical assistance in areas of people management such as recruitment and selection, performance measurement, team composition and organizational design. Many of their concepts have been integrated into broader approaches which have contributed to management thinking in various periods and ultimately the development of HRM

Excerpt from Part One preamble and chapter 1 of the 2nd edition of Human Resource Management in a Business Context, Thomson Learning. Copyright A. J. Price - this excerpt may be copied for personal use only and must be credited to the author if quoted in any text.

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