HRM for MBA Students

1. HRM for MBA Students Lecture 1 People management: personnel management and human resource management

2. Learning outcomes • A good appreciation of the ‘people management’ function in contemporary organisations • Knowledge of ‘human resource management’ (HRM) and ‘personnel management’ (PM) • An appreciation of the theoretical development of HRM • Understanding of the relationship between HRM and business strategy • An appreciation of the practical application of HRM • Recognition of the themes of HRM in the early twenty-first century.

3. ‘People are the only real source of ... continuing competitive advantage.’ Prahalad and Hamel (1990)

4. We can define people management as: ‘all the management decisions and actions that directly affect or influence people as members of the organisation rather than as job-holders.’

5. What do people managers do? Their role has specific objectives under four headings: • Staffing objectives • Performance objectives • Change management objectives • Administration objectives Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2002)

6. The ‘Ulrich model’ of HRM Human Resources should become: • a strategic partner with top management • an expert in administration • a champion for employees • an agent of continuous transformation Ulrich (1998)

7. ‘Building organisational capability is HR’s heartland’ andHR managers ‘can help make capitalism human’ Linda Holbech (2007 )

8. Taylorism Principles of ‘scientific management’ (1911): • time and motion studies of work processes • standardisation of tools, implements and methods • increased division of labour Taylorism + machine-paced work = Fordism

9. The evolution of people management

10. Personnel management • The first Industrial Revolution: welfare role • Rise of trade unionism: industrial relations role • ‘Scientific management’: training;sophisticated recruitment and selection • Thus by the 1970s the Personnel management paradigm

11. Human resource management • Loss of faith in traditional mass-production techniques • The example of Japanese quality • Technological development • Thus by the 1990s the (post-Taylorist) HRM paradigm

12. Perspectives in management • Unitarist • Conflict is ‘wrong’ • Pluralist • Conflict is not ‘wrong’ but must be managed • Radical/critical • Conflict is inevitable ... and may be ‘right’

13. The Harvard model of HRM

14. ‘Ideal types’ of PM and HRM

15. HRM in practice • Evidence of significant adoption of HRM practices • (Workplace Employee Relations Surveys and others) • But still two traditions or paradigms • Most organisations share characteristics of both • But HRM is in the ascendant

16. Key themes in HRM • High-involvement employee work practices • Flexible organisation (core and periphery) • Micro-level work organisation (teamworking) • Sophisticated HR for recruitment • Unitarist employee relations • Change management • The learning organisation • Knowledge management • Leadership