Human Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Human Resources - Essay Example Differences between Personnel management and HRM Personnel management is essentially an administrative record keeping function at the operational level. Personnel management attempts to sustain fair terms and conditions of employment while simultaneously, efficiently managing personnel activities. HRM, on the other hand, is concerned with the development and implementation of people strategies that are integrated with corporate strategies and guarantee that the culture, structure, and values of the organization, as well as the quality, motivation and commitment of the employees contribute fully to the attainment of the organization’s goals (Armstrong 2006, p.5). HRM is concerned with undertaking of analogous functional activities conventionally undertaken by the personnel function such as job analysis, employee relations, planning, and compensation management; however, the HRM approach undertakes these functions in qualitatively distinct way relative to personnel management (D uberley and Walle1995, p.891). Personnel management is essentially workforce centered, directed largely at the organization’s employees. ... HRM, on the other hand, is strategic in nature concerned with directly aiding organizations to gain sustained competitive advantage (Guest, Michie, Conway, and Sheehan 2003, p.291). HRM is mainly more proactive than personnel management, whereas personnel management is concerned with the maintenance of personnel and administrative systems. Personnel management is largely applied in the public sector, tertiary education, and local government despite the complexity associated with public sector including a mix of politics, service delivery, and management. In the private sector, HRM can be used to manage the human side in corporate and large organizations, banks, small and medium –sized enterprise, consultancies, and trade unions. High performance working environment is linked to attainment of high levels of performance, profitability, and customer satisfaction (Armstrong 2006, p.6). Firms such as Tesco and British Airways have demonstrated the significant role played by HRM in the attainment of management objectives mirrored in the transformation of the personnel management function. (P2) The function of HRM centres on planning, developing, and administering policies and programs designed to render the expeditious utilization of organization’s human resources. HRM is concerned with the process of hiring and developing employees with the aim of transforming the employees into valuable resources for the organization (Sims 2002, p.3). The human resources function is mainly responsible for managing workforce as primary resources that play a critical part in the firm’s success. HRM largely functions as a value adding a component in the organization based on the strategic utilization of