The Context Of Human Resource Management.

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Module 1:  The Context Of Human Resource Management

1.1        What is Human resource management?

Personnel Management

Human resources management is the term increasingly used to refer to the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of people within an organisation.  The term personnel management means the same thing.

Evolutionary Development

The sources of personnel management are found in the Industrial Revolution, in the scientific management, industrial welfare and human relations movements, in the development of trade unions and collective bargaining, and the growth of employment – related legislation.

Distinctive Management Discipline

HRM has 4 goals:

  • Integration
  • Employee commitment
  • Flexibility & Adaptability
  • Quality

  1. Write your own definition of work:

Assumptions about work & workers:

Throughout history, attitudes to work have been influenced by the contemporary social and economic contexts.  Edgar Schein (1970) divided assumptions about people and their attitudes to work into 4 categories:

  • Rational-economic
  • Social
  • Self-actualising
  • Complex
  • Psychological
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Schein’s categories can be used to arrange people’s orientations to work in three main groups:

  • Instrumental or economic orientation

Concerned with money, material goods and security

  • Relational or social orientation

Concerned with relationships, friendships and other people

  • Personal or psychological orientation

Concerned with job interest, job satisfaction and personal growth

People’s attitudes to work are both complex and evolving.  Traditional beliefs about work being central to economic life and social existence are changing.  More recent evidence points to a belief by New Zealanders that individual growth and development are more important than work outputs (Toulson and Smith 1989). ...

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