Introduction to HRM Flashcards
What is the main concern for an organisation?
Profits + business and organisational performance
How do organisations relate to different environments?
Internal environment = culture, teams, employees, line managers, HR managers, HR departments etc
External environment = customers, governments, suppliers, labour unions, competitors
What key factor influences organisational performance?
Employee attitudes and behaviours
What is human resource management?
A management activity, employees are resources, these resources help achieve organisational goals. Achieved goals help to achieve strategy = competitive advantage.
What were the first types of organisation that existed?
Family businesses, military - ability and efforts of people had to be organised because they all had the same aim
What are inputs?
They are resources - they depend on the focus of the organisation
What is the value creation cycle?
The process of an organisation taking resources, working on them and converting them into outputs e.g product/service. This output goes back into the environment, they sell it. This may be recycled to adjusted to due to feedback. This cycle keeps going.
How has the definition of HR changed?
Begun as personnel management: discipline, rewards e.g Taylorism - nobody cared about how to motivate people, they were supposed to repeat small specialised tasks
Evolved to be HRM - understanding the labour market better and ensuring productivity but NOT at the expense of employees
How did the definition of HR change?
Hawthorne experiments found that paying attention to people improves their productivity = motivation theories
What didn’t change during the transition to HRM from personnel management?
Organisational goals didn’t change - profits and business, they just found better ways of achieving them. How to reach these goals changed.
How did mergers and acquisitions change HRM?
M+As started to boom with the spread of globalisation, finances were done correctly but mergers were still failing because they ignored the human factor, employees now encouraged to be part of the organisation rather than just being seen as important
What are the HR functional practices?
- Recruitment
- Selection
- Training and development
- Performance appraisal
How did Gospel (1983) define HR?
“The plans and policies used by management to direct work tasks, to evaluate, discipline, reward workers and to deal with trade unions”
How did Keenoy (1990) define HR?
“Method of maximising economic return from labour resource”
How did Armstrong (1992) define HR?
“Strategic, coherent, and comprehensive approach to the management and development of organisation’s Human Resources”
How did Watson (2003) define HR?
Element of managerial work which is concerned with acquiring, developing and dispensing with efforts, skills and capabilities of workforce
How did Storey (2007) define HR?
A distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic development of a highly committed and capable workforce using an array of cultural, structural and personal techniques
How did Mathis and Jackson (2007) define HR?
Designing management systems to ensure that human talent is used to effectively and efficiently accomplish organisational goals.
Why do we need HR?
Because people have skills, knowledge and abilities. This is particularly important for service employees
How does Guest (1987) differ between personnel management and HRM on the basis of organisational structures and systems?
PM = mechanistic, centralised and formal
HRM = organic, less centralised, flexible
How does Guest (1987) differ between personnel management and HRM on the basis of time and planning?
PM = short term, reactive, marginal
HRM = long term, proactive, strategic, integrated
How does Guest (1987) differ between personnel management and HRM on the basis of control systems?
PM = external
HRM = commitment/self control
How does Guest (1987) differ between personnel management and HRM on the basis of employee relations?
PM = collective, low trust
HRM = individualist, high trust
How does Guest (1987) differ between personnel management and HRM on the basis of roles?
PM = specialist, professional
HRM = integrated into line management
