The Development of Human Resource Management
In the 1970s a number of issues came together. Research showed that in the private sector up to 60% of managers’ time was spent on fixing ‘shop floor’ problems. (Beardwell and Holden 1994) At about the same time behavioural theorists such as Robert Herzberg were beginning to have an influence - showing that the motivation and commitment might be improved more readily through recognition, responsibility and challenge rather than rewards and punishments. Business in the West was also failing to keep up with the Japanese. An examination of Japanese methods showed that they considered people ‘a key asset of the business and that management of people was a central strategic issue rather than a necessary inconvenience.’ (Best quoted in Goss 1994:4) Everything pointed to need to think of employees as a resource to be valued, developed and actively managed.
The move towards a more individualistic and people centred style of managing personnel was reinforced particularly in the UK by business conditions in the 1980s:
· a decline in the number of employees in trade unions
· more employees get their wages set by management rather than through collective bargaining.
· fewer employment issues are handled collectively
· more employment issues are raised by management
· flatter hierarchies
· less employment stability
· a rise in short term, part-time and contracted out employment.
(adapted from Beardwell and Holden 2001)
The changes meant that there tended to be more responsibility placed on employees at a time when they had less security. Contracts and working conditions were constantly changing and managers found they had to become more involved with employees and had to adopt new approaches to motivation and welfare. At the same time it was found that the expectations of new employees coming into organisations were changing.
Research by Michael Maccoby (1988) seems to show that people coming into employment today have different needs from employees of the past. These are due to changes in, for example, the way people are educated (learning is more self-directed) and social relationships (people are less prepared to do as they are told). Therefore, according to Maccoby, work has to match workers’ dominant values for them to be motivated. These ideas helped to make the use of ‘empowered’ or ‘semi-autonomous’ teams popular in the workplace.
So, the ideas and principles of Human Resource Management have continued to develop over the last 20 years.