Web support material to accompany Human Resource Management: Theory and practice, Third edition © John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold 2003, published by Palgrave.

Web support material to accompany Human Resource Management: Theory and practice, Third edition © John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold 2003, published by Palgrave Macmillan

Words of wisdom

‘The real sources of competitive leverage are the culture and capabilities of your organization that derive from

how you manage your people.’

‘The whole emphasis on people demands that top management attract, cultivate and keep the best

workforce they can possibly find.’

‘The role of HR is becoming as important if not more than any other exectuive leadership function.’

The Nature of Human Resource Management




Human Resource Management:

A strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes

that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving competitive

advantage. This being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment

policies, programmes and practices.



Management:

The science perspective

The political perspective

The control perspective

The practice perspective



The meaning of ‘management’


Science perspective:

Fayol (1949).

Planning, Organizing, Directing, Controlling (PODC).

Idealized image of management as a rationally designed and operationalized tool for realizing

organizational goals.



Political perspective:

Characterizes the workplace as a miniature society with politics pervading all managerial

work.

Individual managers viewed as ‘knowledgeable human agents’.

Reinforces the theoretical and practical importance of building alliances and networks of

co-operative relationships.



Control perspective:

Conceptualizes management as a controlling agent that servces the economic imperatives

imposed by capitalist marketing relations.

Management structures and labour strategies are instruments and techniques to control the labour

process in order to secure a high level of productivity and profitability.

Simultaneous desire for control over, and cooperation from, workers.



Practice perspective:

Sees management as an activity aimed at the continual melioration of diverse, fragmented and

complex practices.

Incorporates the other three perspectives.



Describes dynamic interlocking relations that exist between individuals and their work

organizations.

Considers economic, legal, social and psychological relations.

The Nature of the Employment Relationship


Economic – exchange of pay for work.

Legal – network of common law and statutory rights and obligations affecting both parties.

Social – ‘social norms’ influence employees’ actions in the workplace.

Psychological – dynamic, two-way exchange of perceived promises and obligations.



Figure 1.2 The employment and psychological contracts between employer and employee



What do HRM professionals do?

Planning

Staffing

Developing

Motivating

Maintaining

Managing relationships

Managing change

Evaluating

HRM Functions


What affects what HRM professionals do?

External context (economic, political and legal regulations, and social aspects)

Strategy

Organization (size, work and structure, and technology)

HRM Functions


How do HRM professionals do what they do?

Use technical, cognitive and interpersonal processes and skills.

Power, legal procedures and communication skills are important.

HRM Functions


HRM Functions


Five major HRM models:

Provide an analytical framework for studying HRM.

Legitimate certain HRM practices.

Establish variables and relationships to be researched.

Explain the nature and significance of key HR practices.

Theoretical perspectives on HRM


Emphasizes the interrelatedness and the coherence of HRM activities.

HRM cycle: selection, appraisal, development and rewards aim to increase

organizational performance.

Fombrun, Tichy & Devanna




Prescriptive.

Ignores stakeholder interests, situational factors and notion of strategic choice.

Expresses the coherence of internal HR policies and the importance of ‘matching’

them to external business strategy.



Situational factors

Stakeholder interests

HRM policy choices

HR outcomes

Long-term consequences

Harvard


Harvard


Classifies inputs and outcomes at both organizational and societal level.

Absence of a coherent theoretical basis for measuring the relationship between HR

inputs, outcomes and performance.

Harvard


Reflects view that a core set of integrated HRM practices can achieve superior

individual and organizational performance.

HRM differs from personnel management.

Guest


Guest


Guest


Extends the Harvard framework.

Maps the connections between the outer and inner contexts and explores how HRM adapts

to changes in context.

Warwick


Warwick


Demonstrates the differences between the ‘personnel and industrials’ and the HRM

paradigm by creating an ‘ideal’ type.

Characterizes HRM as ‘an amalgam of description, prescription, and logical

deduction’.

Storey


Storey


Storey


How many organizations have adopted the new HRM model?

Number of HR ‘architects’ in the highest levels of decision-making is small.

Renaissance of ‘individualism’, fall in ‘collectivism’.

Disjuncture between knowledge of the HRM model and management practice.

Few organizations have integrated HR planning into strategic business planning.

Extent of HRM



Web support material to accompany Human Resource Management: Theory and practice, Third edition © John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold 2003, published by Palgrave.

Documents

meaning of management

management structures

idealized image of management

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