Personnel management is a continuous and never ending process. It aims at attaining the goals of organization, individual and society in an integrated approach. Organization goals may include survival, growth and development in addition to profitability, productivity, innovation, excellence etc. Individual employee- goals consists of job satisfaction, job security , high salary, attractive fringe benefits, challenging work, pride, status, recognition, opportunity for development etc.
Goals of the society include equal employment opportunity, protecting the disadvantaged sections and physically handicapped, minimization of inequalities in the distribution of income by minimizing wage differentials, develop the society in general by organizing developmental activities etc.
The analysis of definitions on personnel management can be summarized as follows:
1. Personnel management is concerned with employees both as individuals and as group in attaining goals. It is also concerned with behavior, emotional and social aspects of personnel.
2. It is concerned with the development of human resources, i.e. Knowledge, capability, skill, potentialities and attaining employee goals, including job satisfaction.
3. Personnel management covers all levels (low, middle, and top) and categories (unskilled, skilled, technical, professional, clerical and managerial) of employees. It covers both organized and unorganized employees.
4. It applies to the employees in all types of organizations in the world (industry trade, service, commerce, economic, social, religious, political and government departments). Thus, it is common in all types of organizations.
5. Personnel management is a responsibility of all line managers and a function of staff managers in an organization.
6. It is concerned mostly with managing human resources at work.
7. Human resources management is the central sub-system of an organization and it permeates all type of functional management namely production management, marketing management and financial management.
8. Personnel management aims at securing unreserved co-operation from all employees in order to attain predetermined goals.
Further the analysis shows that most of the definitions are oriented towards the functions and objectives of personnel management.
Significance of Human Resource management (HRM)
Human resources play a crucial role in the development process of modern economies. There are great differences in development between countries which seem to have roughly equal resources, so it is necessary to enquire into the difference in human behavior. It is often felt that, though the exploitation of natural resources, availability of physical and financial resources and international aid play prominent roles in the growth of modern economies, none of these factors is more significant than efficient and committed manpower. It is in fact, said that all development comes from the human mind.