The development of the personnel function since the First World War and its effect on organizations.

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The First World war, though distant in time and removed from the area of personnel function, has however influenced it in clearly identifiable and very important ways, some direct and some indirect.  These effects can be classified in terms of changed attitudes of managers to labour, changed labour management practices, the development of personnel techniques, and the development of the personnel profession.  This essay will first look at the development of the personnel function since the First World War and then explain its effect on organizations.

According to Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2002), the origins of personnel management lie in the 19th century, deriving from the work of social reformers such as Lord Shaftesbury and Robert Owen.  Their criticisms of the free enterprise system and the hardship created by the exploitation of workers by factory owners enabled the first personnel managers (in the form of welfare officers) to be appointed.  

The first welfare workers were mainly women, and were only concerned with the protection of women and girls, which was seen as a worthy aim.  They were concerned with things such as providing employees with facilities such as canteens and looking after their personal interests.  The First World War accelerated change in the development of personnel management, as it did in many other areas of working life. The number of welfare officers grew to about 1,300, largely because of the Munitions of War Act, 1915.  Men were recruited to oversee boys' welfare, and the government encouraged welfare development through the Health of Munitions Workers' Committee.

During the 1920s, jobs with the titles of 'labour manager' or 'employment manager' came into being in the engineering industry and other industries where there were large factories, to handle absence, recruitment, dismissal and queries over bonuses and so on.  During the 1930s, with the economy beginning to pick up, big corporations in newer sectors, such as plastics, chemicals, and multiple retail, saw value in improving employee benefits - for example, holidays with pay and pensions - as a way of recruiting, retaining and motivating employees

By 1945, employment management and welfare work had become integrated under the broad term, 'personnel management', in which the whole range of personnel services was provided including, in addition to recruitment and record keeping, craft and supervisory training.  

By the mid-1960s, organisations outside manufacturing - in the public sector and services - were beginning to employ personnel specialists. The services provided from before were extended into organisation and management development, systematic training and manpower planning. Meanwhile the scope of bargaining for better work conditions widened to include not just pay but, for example, pensions, training, safety, more sophisticated selection, salary administration and appraisal techniques.

By the seventies personnel managers had to begin to understand the impact of European law on the UK, something which was to grow in importance as the century advanced.  Personnel departments were required to understand these new measures, and to develop policies to implement them, thus making the role of Personnel managers more professional.  By the late 1970s,   personnel techniques developed using theories from the social sciences about motivation and organisational behaviour; selection testing started becoming more widely used, and management training expanded. New management techniques for improving performance arrived from American academics such as McGregor and Herzberg (Cipd website; Personnel Management: A short History) to be applied by personnel departments who were having to adjust to the enterprise culture and the market economy.  

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By the end of the seventies, the main features of personnel management as it appears today were in place, with the focus being on key roles such as: the collective bargaining role; the implementer of legislation role; the bureaucratic role; the social conscience of the business role; and a growing performance improvement role 

The 1980s saw substantial changes as a result of legislation.  Personnel management bacame more business-orientated and management-orientated and the decade saw the rise of performance-related pay as a major motivating force.  It also witnessed the development of performance management systems.  Personnel started to be represented on corporate ...

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