Excerpts from Chapter 1 of Human Resource Management in a Business Context
(3rd Edition, 2007) by Alan Price - published by Cengage
Management theory
The human relations and human factors approaches were absorbed into a broad behavioural science
movement in the 1950's and 1960's. This period produced some influential theories on the motivation of human
performance. For example, Maslow's hierarchy of needs provided an individual focus on the reasons why people work.
He argued that people satisfied an ascending series of needs from survival, through security to eventual 'self-actualization'.
In the same period, concepts of job design such as job enrichment and job enlargement were
investigated. It was felt that people would give more to an organization if they gained satisfaction from their jobs.
Jobs should be designed to be interesting and challenging to gain the commitment of workers - a central theme of HRM.
By the 1970s most managers participating in formal management training were aware of: Theory X and
Theory Y (McGregor, 1960); of Maslow and Herzberg's motivation theories; and knew where they should be in terms of the managerial grid (Blake and Mouton, 1964). These theorists advocated participative, 'soft' approaches to management. However, only a minority of managers in the USA received such training, with even fewer in other countries. Most operational managers - concerned with production, engineering, or distribution - had worked their way up from low-level jobs: they were probably closer in spirit to F.W. Taylor than the theorists of the 1950s and 1960s. This contrasted with personnel departments with a higher proportion of people who had received academic training; additionally, 'personnel' was an area where women were prevalent - as opposed to production which was male dominated. Were women naturally more open to human relations concepts than men?
Pages 14-15 summarize other key management theories, including management by objectives, contingency, organizattional development, strategic management, leadership and corporate culture.
Development of the personnel specialism
Personnel management has been a recognized function in the USA since NCR opened a personnel office in
the 1890s. American personnel managers worked within a unitarist tradition, identifying closely with the objectives of
their organization (key concept 1.3). It was natural for HRM to emerge comparatively smoothly from this perspective.
In other countries the personnel management function arrived more slowly and came from a number of
routes. Moreover, its orientation was not entirely managerial. In Britain its origins can be traced to the 'welfare
officers' employed by Quaker-owned companies such as Cadburys. At an early stage it became evident that there was an
inherent conflict between their activities and those of line managers. They were not seen to have a philosophy
compatible with the worldview of senior managers. The welfare officer orientation placed personnel management as a buffer between the business and its employees. In terms of 'organizational politics' this was not a politically viable position for individuals wishing to further their careers, increase their status and earn high salaries.
This excerpt from Human Resource Management in a Business Context looks at
from a historical perspective.
Pages 16-18 go on to consider the development of personnel management into the 20th century, including
Tyson's typology and a list of 'traditional' personnel tasks.
Management thinking
Like fashions in hairstyle and clothing, management ideas come and go. Today's best-selling management concept will not survive long before being overtaken by the next 'big idea'. Significantly, however, a consistent theme has prevailed for more than two decades: the most successful organizations make the most effective use of their people - their human resources.
The emergence of HRM was part of a major shift in the nature and meaning of management towards the end of the twentieth century. This happened for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly, as we will see in Part 2 of this book, major developments in the structure and intensity of international competition forced companies to make radical changes in their working practices (Goss 1994: 1).
From the 1970s onwards, managers in the industrialized countries felt themselves to be on a roller-coaster of change, expected to deliver improved business performance by whatever means they could muster. Their own careers and rewards were increasingly tied to those improvements and many were despatched to the ranks of the unemployed for not acting quickly and imaginatively enough. Caught between the need to manage decisively and fear of failure, managers sought credible new ideas as a potential route for survival.
Pages 18-20 continue with a discussion of the Japanese role model and its effects on western management thinking.
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Human Resource Management in a Business Context, 3rd edition
Human Resource Management in a Business Context provides an international focus on the theory and practice
of people management. A thorough and comprehensive overview of all the key aspects of HRM, including articles from HRM Guide and other sources,
key concepts, review questions and case studies for discussion and analysis.
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