Is Human Resource Management simply an elegant theory or does it have a basis in reality?

Résumé du document

Human Resource Management was a much-hyped and oft-repeated phrase in the 1980s and 1990s. Prior to this, Personnel Management was commonly used. These two terms can be differentiated by many ways and have been distinguished by various authors. We need to understand the common definition of those terms which have a basic goal: to organize and structure the employees in order to give them the opportunity to get the greatest of themselves with the maximum of efficiency to reach the company's goals.

Extraits

[...] In spite of this opposition, individualism and collectivism have to live together and created a competition atmosphere between employees which can affect the company well being. potential conflict between emphasizing the importance of the individual on the one hand, and the desirability of cooperative team work and employee commitment to the organization on the other, is glossed over through the general assumption of unitaristic values”. New perspectives on human resource management p 31. Contradiction of capitalism Today, companies have to face the globalization context, which is associated to the capitalism system, meaning that employees are considered as a variable input. [...]

[...] Critical Management Studies debate on Human Resource Management proposes that reality is socially constructed for employees through macro discourse. It argues that in response to a unitary rhetoric of mutual gains, employees trust the organization to take care of their needs, preferring a direct individual relationship with their employers over a collective workplace relationship facilitated by unions, and that this produces superior outcomes for employers at the expense of employees. This research extends extant knowledge in this field by using a large scale empirical perspective based on a survey of 189 large, Australian organisations. [...]

[...] In my opinion, Human Resource Management has a real role to play in order to guarantee a highest realization of employees and also serve the company's interest, but the only way to reach this target is still to improve the HRM theories and to adapt them to the field reality and to the different businesses' strategies/ characteristics in order to get a better effectiveness. First of all I will present the theories of HRM and how they are used in reality. Second of all I will point out the contradictions and inconstancies of these theories in the practice. [...]

[...] The term defender is characterized by a narrow and relatively stable product-market domain, single, capital intensive technology, a functional structure and skills in production efficiency, process engineering and cost control (e.g. Lincoln Electric). The logic of this strategy is supposed to human resources. A prospector strategy is typified by the continual search for new product and market opportunities and experimentation with potential responses to emerging environmental trends Diverse product line, multiple technologies, a product or geographically divisionalized structure and skills in product research and development, market research and development engineering (e.g. [...]

[...] Is Human Resource Management simply an elegant theory or does it have a basis in reality? Introduction In order to understand what Human Resource Management means exactly, it has to be known that this term appears throughout the 80s and 90s. Before then, Personnel Management term was used. These two terms can be differentiated by many ways and have been differentiated by various authors, but before to cite the authors in order to explain the characteristics of each term, the important aspect to understand is the common definition of those terms which have a basic goal: To organize and structure the employees in order to give them the opportunity to get the greatest of themselves with the maximum of efficiency to reach the company's goals. [...]