Human Resource Management Model

The term “Human Resource Management” has largely replaced the term “Personnel Management”. Human Resource Management also known as HRM is defined by John Storey as a “distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques”(Storey, 1995). While Personnel Management “is concerned with obtaining, organizing and motivation the human resources required by the enterprise” (Armstrong, 1977). However it has been argued that the “underlying values of Personnel Management and HRM differ little, and that organisational constraint may well take a truly integrated approach”

Traditional Personnel Management however, has tended to be more people orientated, taking the view that if their needs are satisfied, the organisation as well as its members will benefit. At the core of the traditional model “it wishes to establish order, exercise control and achieve efficiency in the application of the workforce” (Walton, 2007).This model “assumes low employee commitment” and is designed to “produce reliable if not outstanding performance”. Recently, there has been changing expectations among workers which has promoted a growing disillusionment with the apparatus of control (Walton, 2007). There have been many attempts to capture the changing nature of the personnel role in response to the major alterations in the workplace and the associated rise of HRM. “HR professionals must overcome the traditional marginality of the personnel function by embracing a new set of roles as champions of competitiveness in delivering value” (Caldwell, 2003). In the new HRM model, “jobs are designed to be broader than before, to combine planning and implementation, and to include efforts to upgrade operations, not just maintain them” (Walton, 2007). For organisations to achieve excellence it was necessary for Human Resource Management to take over from Personnel Management. The main difference between both of these approaches is that HRM is more

The Hard element of HRM emphasises the ‘quantitative, calculative, and business strategic aspects of managing the headcount resource in as "rational" a way as for any other economic factor’ (Storey, 1987: 6). The Soft approach of HRM emphasises individuals and their self-direction and places commitment, trust and self-regulated behaviour at the centre of the strategic approach to people. The term strategic human resource management (SHRM) is now frequently used to refer to HRM. When talking about SHRM, there is no definitive one best way to conduct HRM. Some authors believe that by accepting the philosophy behind the ‘soft’ approach it would likely lead to ‘best-practice’ (Marchington and Wilkinson, 1996). However, understanding that HRM practices need to be aligned with business strategy will result in ‘best-fit’