Modern organizational setting is characterised by constant changes relating to environmental factors and human resources. As regards environmental factors, we find changes in the operating organizational structure, the network of working procedures, customs or norms andthe economic, political and social patterns in which organizations exist. Moreover, there is constant change in human resources new individuals are being employed with their new ideas and expectations while the existing workforce is constantly changing their ideas, attitudes and values. Specifically, as Dale Yoder observes, the changes affecting employment relationships in these two dimensions reveal the following trends:
1) Increased complexity of organization and employment communication and a distinction between owners, managers and workers.
2) Decreased number of employers and selfemployed and enlarged size of workforce.
3) Enhanced need for training in view of increased requirements of specialised skills.
4) Public interventions and legal complication in employeremployee relationships
5) Enhanced training and development of managers and professionalization of management
6) Possibility of employment explosion in view of the everincreasingsize of workforce.
7) Rising formal level of education of rankandfile employees who are becoming
increasingly critical of management malpractices and errors
8) Rankandfile employees’ rapidly growing demands in different employment situations.
9) Increased applications of behavioural science by enterprising managers.
10) Recognition of close relationship between profits and earnings and ability to manage human resources.
Indeed, these trends manifest themselves in problem areas as identified by managers in organizational settings. Although the changes may provide solution to some problems, they may create several new ones. There is an urgent need to understand these problems, anticipate them and to find solutions. The responsibility to find out the solutions to these problems lies with every manager who has to be prepared to deal with different changes effectively through educational and development programmes. Obviously, every manager is responsible for management of human resources, of course, with the advice and help of Personnel Department. Management of human resources is the essence of being a manager
who has to get things done through others. Specifically, his task relates to leading, mobilising and directing the efforts of people without which he can be a technician but not a manager. Thus, every manager has to develop and maintain his competence in managing human resources which have assumed utmost significance in modern organisations
Distinction between Personnel Management & Human Resources Management
The genesis of Human Resources Management traces its roots to the erstwhile Personnel
Management that was prevalent in the companies of a few decades ago. Though the two terms
'Personnel Management' and 'Human Resources Management' are interchangeably used bymost of the authors, there are some differences between them. Management of Human
Resources is a new field of study embodying behavioural science knowledge relating to the
working of line and staff officials and union leaders to motivate organizational goals. On the
other hand, Personnel Management is that phase of management which deals with the effective control and use of manpower. Yoder, Henemen and others agreed that the HRM is a broad concept which covers many personnel aspects and include social, professional and individual enterprise aspects, whereas Personnel Management focuses only on personnel aspects such as leadership, justice determination, task specialisation, staffing, performance appraisal, etc. HRM is more growthoriented
whereas Personnel Management is slightly narrow. Human Resource Planning is very vital in HRM. This is because it leads to the maximum utilization of human resources, reduces excessive labour turnover and high absenteeism; improves productivity and aids in achieving the objectives of an organisation. In addition to the above function, HRM emphasizes on training, an important area of personnel, which covers the following aspects:
1. Increasing productivity;
2. Improving quality;
3. Improving organisational climate;
4. Ensuring personnel growth etc.
While in practice both pertained to people management philosophically the approach is vastly different. The expectations from Personnel management approach is to ‘take care’ of the people working in a organization, addressing grievances and complaints formed a large part of the Personnel Management function. The focus is largely reactive and followed the Theory X approach that believed that people do not naturally like to work and need to be coerced to work and often need to be driven to work. The philosophy is more the ‘stick’ approach rather than ‘carrot’ approach. Employee welfare is of paramount importance and managing industrial relations as a result of heightened trade union activity formed the highlights of the
Personnel Management functions.
Human Resources Management on the other hand adopts a proactive approach to managing people and the focus is on employee development and delight. Hiring the right talent, providing for ample opportunities for career growth and job satisfaction are the highlights of this management style. The basic philosophy is driven by the Theory Y approach where the belief is that people like to work and do not prefer to be supervised and made to perform