The Nature And Scope Of Human Resource Management

If we take a look into the world of human beings it is a very rewarding and enriching experience. Contrasts abound in our world. Beauty is juxtaposed with ugliness, mercy is compared with cruelty, compassion with indifference, happiness comes after misery, industriousness and laziness coexist, and so does affluence with poverty.

It is the people involved in any organisation which are the deciding factor for its success or failure.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF HRM:

Simply put, Human Resource Management is an intrinsic function of management that enables the manager’s in recruiting, selecting, training and developing members for any given organisation. Human resource management is concerned with the people’s dimension and behaviour in an organisation.

SCOPE OF HRM:

The scope of HRM is vast and affects a lot of areas. A lot of important and essential activities and in the life of a worker from the moment he or she enters into an organisation till the time they leave, come under the scrutiny and scope of human resource management. Specifically speaking, the activities which are mainly included in human resource management are- planning of human resources, analysis and designing of various jobs, process of recruiting & selection, training and development of employees for the benefit of organisation, performance appraisal which also includes job evaluation and such activities.

OBJECTIVES OF HRM:

Social Objectives: This involves the firm to be responsible towards the needs of the society while it simultaneously minimises the negative and wrong impacts of such requirements upon the organisation.

Organisational Objectives: These objectives involve recognising the role of Human Resource Management in bringing about organisational effectiveness.

Functional Objectives: Functional Objectives involve maintaining the department’s contribution at a level which is appropriate to the organisation’s needs.

Personal Objectives: Personal Objectives help in assisting employees in achieving their personal goals, and also in enhancing the individual’s contribution to the organisation.

ENVIRONMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:

Environment is a very important variable in the human resource management model. It is hence, desirable and beneficial that we know what such an environment is and how it influences human resource functions in an organisation.

EXTERNAL FORCES:

External forces of such an environment include political-legal, economic, technological, and cultural factors, these influence human resource management considerably.

INTERNAL FORCES:

In addition to the external forces, there are some factors which are internal to the organisation which influences human resource activities. Unlike the external force, where HRM has no control, internal factors are within an organisation’s influence. Prominent internal forces are as follows:

Unions

Organisational culture and conflicts

Professional bodies

PLANNING, DESIGN & ORIENTATION OF HRM:

PLANNING:

Human Resource planning is understood as a process of intense forecasting which is related to organisation’s future demand for, and supply of, the right type of people in the right number.

ANALYSIS &DESIGN:

In simple terms, job analysis can be understood as a process which involves collecting information related to a given job. The process of job analysis results in two sets of further information i.e. (I) Job Description (II) Job Specification

Specifically speaking Job analysis involves the following steps:

Collection and recording of job related information

Writing job descriptions which are based on the information thereby collected

Updating of such information from time to time

RECRUITMENT:

Recruitment as a process can be defined as an effort to find and attract suitable applicants for a job opening. This process begins when there is a demand for new people in the organisation and ends when such people submit their applications. This results in a pool of applicants from which new employees are selected. It also helps in determining the present and future requirements of the organisation in relation to its personnel-planning and job-analysis activities.

SELECTION:

Selection is known as the process of differentiating between applicants so as to indentify and hire those which have a greater likelihood of success in a given job. The role of selection in an organisation’s effectiveness is crucial. Poor and improper choice of personnel is usually demoralising for the whole organisation. Effective selection therefore, assumes greater relevance.

ORIENTATION:

Orientation is also known as induction is a crucial activity of human resource management. It is not anything complex, infact it is nothing more than planned introduction of employees to their jobs. Organisations all around the world spend some time on orientation programmes. The idea behind all this is nothing more, than to make the employees feel at home in a new environment.

DEVELOPMENT, APPRAISAL & REMUNERATION IN HRM:

DEVELOPMENT:

Development is a topic which stresses on knowledge; knowledge which is related to business environment, human relations and the like. Development of employees to handle better and more competitive jobs is a necessary function that all HRM managers perform.

APPRAISAL:

In plain and simple words, performance appraisal can be understood as judging of the performance of an individual. The performance is mostly measured against factors which involve knowledge of job, quality related information, and other such terms. Assessment should not be based on past performances.

REMUNERATION:

Remuneration is the monetary compensation that an employee receives in return for his contribution to the organisation. Remuneration is very important in the life of an employee. In human resource management also, remuneration acts as a major function. The HR specialists perform a difficult task of fixing wages of employees and their leaders. Following are some components of remuneration:

WAGES AND SALARY

INCENTIVES

FRINGE BENEFITS

PERQUISITES

NON-MONETARY BENEFITS

INCENTIVE PAYMENTS AND BENEFITS IN HRM

INCENTIVE PAYMENTS

Incentives are nothing but monetary benefits paid to workmen for their outstanding performance. They are defined as variable rewards which are granted according to variations in the achievement of specific and certain results. It emphasizes the point of motivation in an organisation, that is, the imparting of incentives to the workers for their efforts towards higher production and productivity.

The primary advantage of providing incentives is that it helps in inducement and motivation of workers towards achievement of higher efficiency. Fixed remuneration sometimes makes it very difficult to motivate workers.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Financial remuneration of employees comprises of both direct as well as indirect elements. Employee benefits can include all kinds of benefits that an employee may receive in addition to direct remuneration.

Fringe benefits include a broad range of benefits and services that employees receive as part of his compensation package. Benefits and services may be treated as indirect compensation because they are usually considered as a condition of employment. Employee benefits are sometimes alternatively known as fringe benefits.

MOTIVATION, PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNICATION:

MOTIVATION

A basic principle of human resource management is that the performance of any individual employee usually depends on his or her ability which must be backed by motivation. Motivation in simple terms can be easily understood as any set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways. Motivation is always goal directed. A goal can be defined as a specific result that any individual wishes to achieve. An employee’s goals are often driving forces for him and accomplishing these goals can significantly reduce his needs.

Motivated employees are always looking for better ways to perform their jobs. When people try to find new ways of doing things, they usually end up finding them. It is the sole responsibility of managers concerned with human resource management to help employees in look for better ways of doing their jobs. A motivated employee is often more quality oriented.

This is true whether for a top manager or for a simple clerk. Proper understandings of the way motivation works shall help a manager make his employees quality oriented.

PARTICIPATION

Employee participation in management is nothing new to the world. One can date it back as far as one can date back industry. But its importance has been increased recently. In the narrow sense of the word, participative management usually refers to the assembly of councils and various committees which usually comprise of representatives of employees and employers. They usually recommend steps for improving productivity, machine utilisation, and job loading etc.

Workers participation broadly, can be taken to cover all terms of association of workers and their representatives including the decision making process, ranging from exchanging of decisions and negotiations to more institutionalised forms such as having the presence of workers on supervisory boards.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is one of the most famous and most discussed topics in human resource management. The attention is justified also. This is so because of the impact communication has on motivation of employees. Communication can easily be understood as the process involving exchanging of information. Communication also involves transmission and reception of messages. Communication can be best described as a process; it is active and continuous, reciprocal and dynamic.

Effective communication is very important for managers. In organisations for perform their basic functions of planning and controlling managers need to communicate. The process of communication helps managers to carry out their responsibilities. For organisations to function successfully, effective communication is a must. Communication is quite significant as it can serve up to four major functions within an organisation. These are control, motivation, emotional expression and information.

EMPLOYEE WELFARE IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Welfare means doing well or good for someone. It is a comprehensive term. Employee welfare refers to the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of an employee as an individual. Further, the term welfare can also be looked upon as a relative concept, relative in time and space. It therefore varies from place to place, from company to company and also within country to country. Labour welfare is a term which is always elastic, bearing a somewhat different interpretation in different countries.

Labour welfare like any other concept has two aspects- negative and positive. On the negative side, labour welfare can be said to be concerned with counteracting the baneful effects of large-scale industries. On its positive side, it can said to be dealing with the provision of opportunities for the worker and his family.

PROMOTIONS, TRANSFERS AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Promotion means and involves an improvement in pay, prestige, position and responsibilities of an employee within the organisation he works. A mere shifting of an employee to a different job does not mean he has been promoted.

The new job can be treated as a promotion only if and when it shall carry increased responsibility and enhanced pay.

Following can be termed as the purposes of giving promotion to an employee:

To motivate the employees towards higher productivity

To attract and retain them for their services.

To recognise and reward the efficiency of hard working employees

To increase the effectiveness of the employee for the overall benefits of the organisation

To fill up higher job positions

To build loyalty, morale and a sense of belongingness in the employee

A promotion always represents the ultimate accomplishment for many employees. It is achieved through an employee’s hard work and good performance.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND DISPUTES IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

If there is one issue on which managers spend vast numbers of sleepless nights, it is competition. Competition increases day by day. The surest way of facing any competition is to improve productivity of the organisation. Productivity can be best improved through maintaining proper industrial relations. Essentially Industrial relations are concerned with relationship between management, managers and workers.

Industrial relations are defined as being concerned with the systems, and other conditions of the employment, to protect the interests of the employed and their employers and to regulate the ways in which employers should and must treat their employees.

Industrial relations cover the following areas:

Collective bargaining

Role of management and their relation with unions and government

Machinery for resolution of industrial disputes

Industrial grievance and disciplinary policy and practice

Labour legislation

Industrial relations training

Another related term to industrial relation is employee relations. This term is more comprehensive and it includes all those aspects of human resource management which deal with employees collectively. Human relations includes in addition to industrial relations, relations with regards to participative management, employee welfare etc.

DISPUTES

Disputes are common in all industries. They come in front of our eyes in the form of strikes and lockouts. The consequences of disputes can be loss of production, loss of profit, loss of market and even in some rare cases closure of industries. Industrial disputes mean any dispute or difference between employers and employees, or between two employers themselves, or between groups of various workmen. Dispute can be connected to employment or non employment subjects or with the conditions of work.

The causes of industrial disputes are many and varied. The major ones are usually related to wages, union rivalry, political interference, unfair labour practices, multiplicity of labour laws and others.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A CHALLENGE

Managing human resources is not child’s play and the best and the most famous managers from around the world completely agree to this. There are quite a few challenges that a modern human resource manager needs to face while performing his job, some of them are:

Globalisation

Corporate Reorganisation

New organisational forms

Changing demographics of workforce

Changed employee expectations

New industrial relations approach

Renewed focus on people

Managing the managers

Interests of the weaker and the downtrodden people in the society

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Globalisation of business has probably affected the human resource managers more severely than any other functional head. Just as the success of a domestic business depends on its human resources, so is the case with an international business. The types of people in international organisations, their will to work and their commitment they exhibit towards the organisation mostly determine the success of any multinational company in the international market. The international firm may have the best resources at its headquarters but it needs proper men to work in its international offices. An international business must therefore procure and effectively utilise services of proper human resources everywhere. The process of procurement and effective allocation of human resource is an international process called international human resource management. The scope of international human resource management is much broader than domestic human resource management.