The art of people management.

The art of people management
IN the era of globalisation (global think + local needs), the emergence of the new scientific way of people management has given birth to the new term called human resource management (HRM).

HRM can be the magic contributor to the success of an enterprise because it is in a key position to affect customers, business results and ultimately "shareholder value".

We should not forget that HRM is one integrated part of the management that deals directly with people and for people. In other words, HRM focuses on fulfilment of the internal customers needs, which can then help the organisation to satisfy the needs of the external customers.

HRM is the "buzzword" for people development strategies and partnership policies (SPP), which is the key to organisational success and sustainability. Barry Smith, 1998 has stated that people are the most important asset and one of the underlying factors is that "human capital" is very much powerful and valuable than any other resources in an organisation.

Although Keenoy branded HRM as a "case of the wolf in sheep's clothing" because it is the new term, which is more fashionable than the previously known "personnel management", the former Ministry of Labour has supported it.

In fact, the former Ministry of Labour has discarded the old name in favour of the HRM of Malaysia with the intention of keeping up with global business and human resource changes. Although the debate on HRM versus personnel management has largely died down, some valid theoretical perspective on the topic is still being argued.

Well the argument whether HRM is the new name for personnel management can be seen in many ways, especially when some quarters say that is it nothing but "an old wine wrapped up in a new bottle". In fact, there are many differences between both.

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Torrington and Hall in their book Personnel Management: A New Approach made clear that there are "substantive differences" between HRM and personnel management.

They have strongly stated that personnel management is more focused on people management whereas HRM focuses more on people development and innovation.

In other words, personnel management was seen as a part of the problem but HRM is seen as a part of the solution (Dev Anand, 2000).

The strategic role of HRM
In the past, most organisations were focused on the inward looking (Torrington, 1999), but with employees becoming more aligned with the strategic business needs, they have become equally important as external customers. Because of this, HRM has influenced organisations to be more outward looking (Torrington, 1999).

This has resulted in HRM as the complete role player, manager and changer, which integrate people resources as "critical means to achieve desirable ends' (Stone, 1998). Therefore HRM plays an important role, which is more business-oriented, people-innovated and strategically focused. There are four main roles of HRM strategically, that are:

HRM as a strategic partner;
HRM as people innovator;
HRM as part of an open management system; and
HRM as change management.

HRM as a strategic partner
HRM encourages HR managers to play a strategic role where they have the ability to translate business strategy into action.

This facility roles the HR manager together with the HR team to take part in the organisational decision making process. In short, HRM integrates and strategically links the corporate business strategy to HR policies and practices.

HRM as people innovator
HRM also plays the role of people innovator through the integration of skills and knowledge development plans (SKDP) advocated by John Storey. Storey clearly says that as a people innovator, HRM focuses more on long-term planning and therefore sees employees training and development as part of an investment.

The current role of HRM gives HR managers challenges to create highly innovative and adaptive employees who cannot only participate in daily operations but also contributes ideas for organisational development and adopt to any changes which involves technological changes, social changes, organisational changes, job changes or business changes.

HRM as an open management system
HRM sees the HR manager as an individual who must be able to relate and meet the needs of employees. This can be achieved by being the employees voice in the management discussions, by being fair and principled, by assuring that their concerns are being heard, and by helping them find new ways to improve their performance, contribute more to the organisation and be more job competent.

On the other hand, HR managers must play advisory and consultant role in giving strategic
views and ideas pertaining to any HR policies or regulations that need to be implemented. HRM encourages management to be more participative where line managers and HR managers work
as a team.

In the open management system, problems are made very transparent and employees' ideas and suggestions are not filtered before reaching the top management.

HRM as part of change management
HRM is also involved in the process of change management, which is due to:
Uncertainty (what information is available in decision-making);

Volatility (how often is the environment changing);
Magnitudes of change (how drastic are the changes); and
Complexity (how many external and internal influences in the environment are at play).

According to Denton (1984), HRM success depends on recognising the need for change and successfully implementing it. Therefore, HRM urges HR managers to be more alert to people and situations requiring changes (Legge, 1988), be receptive to new ideas and ways of doing things and be able to lead and support initiatives for change.

Changes in business and HR strategies requires careful introduction. Changing employee's behaviour requires a change in the organisations culture.