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Onyusheva I.V., PhD, Professor of RAM, RANH,
Leskovskaya E.B.
University of International Business, Almaty,
Republic of Kazakhstan
Historical Background
of Human Resource Management: Types and Theories
Key Words: human resource management, theories, types,
factors, development, motivation.
Organization surround
modern man throughout his life, in organizations - kindergartens, schools,
universities, institutions, clubs, parties - most of us spend most of their
time. Organizations (sometimes called entities) create products and services, that
consume human society lives and develops. Under an ‘organization’ it is
understood a union of people working together to achieve certain goals [1].
Managers
perform various functions, but one of the most important and least understood
aspects of their job is proper utilization of people. Research reveals that
worker performance is closely related to motivation; thus keeping employees
motivated is an essential component of good management. In a business context,
motivation refers to the stimulus that directs the behavior of workers toward
the company goals. In order to motivate workers to achieve company goals,
managers must be aware of their needs.
Many managers
believe workers will be motivated to achieve organizational goals by satisfying
their fundamental needs for material survival. These needs include a good
salary, safe working conditions, and job security. While absence of these
factors results in poor morale and dissatisfaction, studies have shown that
their presence results only in maintenance of existing attitudes and work
performance. Although important, salary, working conditions, and job security
do not provide the primary motivation for many workers in highly industrialized
societies, especially at the professional or technical levels.
Increased
motivation is more likely to occur when work meets the needs of individuals for
learning, self-realization, and personal growth. By responding to personal
needs - the desire for responsibility, recognition, growth, promotion, and more
interesting work managers have altered conditions in the workplace and,
consequently, many employees are motivated to perform more effectively.
In an
attempt appeal to both the fundamental and personal needs of workers,
innovative management approaches, such as job enrichment and job enlargement,
have been adopted in many organizations. Job enrichment gives workers more
authority in making decisions related to planning and doing their work. A
worker might assume responsibility for scheduling work-flow, checking quality
of work produced, or making sure deadlines are met. Job enlargement increases
the number of tasks workers perform by allowing them to rotate positions or by giving
them responsibility for doing several jobs. Rather than assembling just one
component of an automobile, factory workers might be grouped together and given
responsibility for assembling the entire fuel system.
By improving
the quality of work life through satisfaction of fundamental and personal
employee needs, managers attempt to direct the behavior of workers toward the
company goals.
Human
resources are the category that characterizes a quality content aspect of the
entire staff of the organization, labor, industry or human resources of the
region, the territory of the country as a whole.
The
definition of ‘staff’ as a concept considered by many contemporary scholars and
practitioners, and reflects a change in the perception of people in the
workplace, a tendency to move from a resource, the consumer attitude to
employees to the humanistic, the perception of staff as the main asset of the organization
by virtue of his unique qualities and infinite possibilities [2].
Human resource
management system is the management of living labor, human beings, the most
challenging and promising, potentially inexhaustible resource of the
enterprise, to a great extent determines the operational efficiency,
competitiveness and survival of the organization.
The roots of human resource management go deep into
the history of human society. Even the first representatives of humanity united
in tribal communities, daily solve problems using their own, very limited
physical and intellectual resources, faced with the question of division of
labor, work motivation and discipline.
In the middle ages, most organizations used the
labor of a very small number of people who carried out the same operation for
many years and even centuries. HR management is one of the activities of the
head of the organization. The era of the Middle Ages gives interesting examples
of professional career planning and development (Western shop with an elaborate
internal hierarchy and the criteria for promotion within it), stimulation of
work (the first plans, the participation of wage workers in the profits),
vocational training (craft schools, apprenticeships) [3].
The industrial revolution of the XIX century radically
changed the nature of the economic organizations - to replace the workshops
came to the factory, to work together using a large number of people. I changed
and the nature of labor - skilled labor to replace mechanical and artisan came
empty proletarian labor, is the apt definition of Marx [4], only ‘an appendage
of the machine’. The growth of the scale of economic organizations and the
strengthening of discontent working conditions of the majority of workers are
gradually forcing the leaders of these organizations to hire professionals to
deal exclusively with the relations with the workers. In the homeland of
industrial production - in England they were calling Secretaries of welfare in
the United States and France - Public Secretaries. The main functions of the
first specialists in human resources management were limited to schools and
hospitals apparatus for workers, control over working conditions, and
opposition to attempts to create trade unions [3, p.48].
Significant changes in human resource management
have occurred in industrialized countries in the 20-30’s of this century. Three
important factors have predetermined the changes - the emergence and spread of
‘scientific organization of labor’, - the development of the trade union
movement and active state intervention in the relationship between employees
and employers.
The scientific theory of labor organization, or,
more precisely, the ‘scientific management’, whose foundations were laid at the
beginning of this century in the work of Frederick Taylor [5], and subsequently
developed by many other scientists, made a "quiet revolution" in the
management of the organization as a whole and human in particular resource. The
theory of "scientific management," argued that there are optimal and
universal for all enterprises management practices and work organization to
significantly improve its performance. The basis of these methods lay the
division of labor and specialization of deep staff. Sami asked to develop
methods based on the use of science (mathematics, physics, and psychology), a
systematic study of the existing working methods and experimentation. With the
spread of the ideas of ‘scientific management’ in many enterprises were
representatives of the new professions - engineers, devoted to the study and
optimization of working methods.
The development of machine production, united masses
of workers in the framework of the industrial enterprises and make them work
mechanical and monotonous, it contributed to the rapid growth of trade unions
in almost all industrialized countries. The trade union movement has become a
powerful force, capable of widespread and painful in its consequences to
actions - strikes, boycotts, and even armed conflicts with the administration
of the companies. By the early 30-ies of the XX century, collective bargaining
between unions and employers has become a common practice of all industrialized
countries. Much more complex relationship with unionized employees demanded by
many companies create special posts of directors or administrators, whose role
is to negotiate with the trade unions, the analysis of their claims,
representation interests of the organization in the event of litigation [6].
The sharp social stratification of society in
industrialized countries comes amid unprecedented before the growth of the
productive forces, accompanied by the first decade of the XX century, the
increasing influence of the socialist and communist parties, as well as radical
trade unions, which forced the governments of these countries are actively
involved in the regulation of relations between workers and employers. State
intervention has led to the establishment of national systems of social
security, unemployment compensation, minimum wage-fixing, limitation and
reduction of working hours. In some countries, there are special public
authorities to monitor the working conditions and protection of workers'
interests. As a result of these legislative changes, the company has a need for
specialists who are experts in the field of labor law, to ensure control of its
implementation of the enterprise administration, and is responsible for
interaction with public authorities. Organizations have started to create
special departments dealing with these issues. They usually called the
personnel department.
During 50-70’s for industrialized countries swept by
another wave of legislative, significantly complicating the state regulation of
labor relations. New laws were directed against all kinds of discrimination in
the workplace, increased the social security of employees, installed elaborate
labor standards and environmental protection [7].
During the Second World War was a monumental task
set before the HR departments of industrial enterprises (mainly in the US and
UK), life itself - in the shortest possible time to recruit and train hundreds
of thousands of new employees in all occupations to replace drafted. This
problem was successfully solved, and since then, the recruitment and training
issues have become a major focus of the departments of human resources
management.
During the war received further development
originated in the beginning of the century ‘performance management’, which
consisted in the development of working methods and optimal planning of the
number of workers on the basis of economic indicators (the value produced per
unit time of production and profit) [6, p.78].
In the postwar period the company, and particularly
the US, for the first time engaged in retraining engineers, accountants and
other ‘white collar’. The scale, complexity and importance of vocational
training within the organization has increased significantly, and at the same
time increased and the role of the personnel department, managing the process [7,
p.112].
In the late 20’s the American scientists E. Mayo and
F. Roezlizberger put forward the concept of ‘human relations' arguing
productivity depends not only and not so much on the methods of organization of
production, but on how the managers are implementing, that is. e. from human,
rather than mechanistic factors [8].
In 1960 Douglas MacGregor published a famous book ‘The
Human Side of Enterprise’ [9] in which he criticized main provisions of scientific
management theory. McGregor argued that professed its detailed procedures and
rules, pervasive division of labor and the concentration of decision-making
function on the upper floors of the organization killed creativity, limit the
independence of the workers and impeding their development and create
antagonism between the workers and their leaders, which ultimately negatively
affects performance.
Works McGregor and other management theorists developed
views of Mayo and had a significant impact on both the management practices and
the training of future leaders. In 60-70’s American business schools have
expanded their programs to include them in disciplines related to human resources
- industrial psychology, organizational behavior, human resources management.
As a result, the economy started coming leaders, aware of the need and
importance of human resource management, as well as to understand the specifics
of this process in comparison with the financial management and procurement.
For HR departments, which in the 70’s in America and
80’s in Western Europe, have become ‘human resources departments’, the
statement of the humanist approach to the management of people meant to increase
their status within the organization and at the same time the emergence of such
new activities as planning and career development, job enrichment, attracting
workers to participate in management. Colleges and business schools began to
train specialists in the management of human resources, there were numerous
associations and professional organizations in this field. Human resource
management has become as important institutional function as financial
management or technological developments, and their leaders have become full
members of senior management of most businesses today.
During 1960-1970’s of human resource planning has
evolved from occasional exercises in formal organizational process through
which companies identify their needs in the workforce for a long period in
terms of both its quantity and quality characteristics analyzed at the disposal
of the company human resources and their dynamics, expected demand for
admission on the part of employees and professional training. To improve the efficiency
of this process, many companies have used the rather complex mathematical
models. At the end of the 70s in the developed countries there are special
organizations for human resources planning, including the famous American
Society of Human Resource Planning, has had a tremendous impact on the
development of the theory and practice of human resource management.
During the 80s an unfavorable economic situation has
forced many companies to scale back their operations and lay off workers. The
ability of the organization to effectively manage massive layoffs become one of
the critical competencies. Human resource departments are actively engaged in
job placement and retraining redundant workers and the maintenance of morality
left in the organization. Human resource planning has become more pragmatic,
widely used techniques such as 3/4 when the organization employs only 75% of it
required workers to protect themselves from demand reduction. The extent of
part-time employment increased significantly, sharp attacks exposed the
principle of “one organization to the entire working life” [10].
In the 90’s there were also significant changes in
human resources management priorities related to the acceleration of
technological progress, globalization of the economy and increasing competition
in all sectors of life. Simultaneously with the development of these trends,
there was a further weakening of the influence of the trade unions, especially
in North America and Japan, reduced level of state regulation of the economy
and the relationship of workers and employers, there have been reforms to
liberalize the social security systems and software [11].
Speaking about nowadays, human
resource management (or HRM) is the organizational
function that deals with or provides leadership and advice for dealing with all
issues related to the people in an organization. HRM, as such, deals with
compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee
motivation, communication, administration, and training.
HRM is also a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing
people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective HRM
enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall
company direction and the accomplishment of the organization's goals and
objectives [11, p.155].
HRM is moving away from traditional personnel, administration,
and transactional roles, which are increasingly outsourced. Nowadays the HRM
function is expected to add value to the strategic
utilization of employees and to ensure that employee programs recommended and
implemented impact the business in positive measurable ways [12].
The new role of HRM involves strategic direction and HRM metrics and measurements to demonstrate
their value. Employees who work in HRM must demonstrate their value by
keeping their employer and company safe from lawsuits and the resulting workplace
chaos. They must perform a balancing act to serve all of an organization's
stakeholders: customers, executives, owners, managers, employees, and
stockholders.
The time is changing as well as
scientific and research approaches to HRM. In recent years,
several business trends have had a significant impact on the broad field of
HRM. Chief among them was new technologies. These new technologies,
particularly in the areas of electronic communication and information
dissemination and retrieval, have dramatically altered the business landscape, and
HRM professionals have had to develop new guidelines for this emerging subset
of employees.
Changes in
organizational structure have also influenced the changing face of human
resource management. Continued erosion in manufacturing industries in the
United States and other nations, coupled with the rise in service industries in
those countries, have changed the workplace, as has the decline in union
representation in many industries (these two trends, in fact, are commonly
viewed as interrelated) [12, p.35].
In addition,
organizational philosophies have undergone change. Many companies have scrapped
or adjusted their traditional, hierarchical organizational structures in favor
of flatter management structures. HRM experts note that this shift in
responsibility brought with it a need to reassess job descriptions, appraisal
systems, and other elements of personnel management.
One more change
factor has been accelerating market globalization. This phenomenon has served
to increase competition for both customers and jobs. The latter development
enabled some businesses to demand higher performances from their employees
while holding the line on compensation. Other factors that have changed the
nature of HRM in recent years include new management and operational theories
like Total Quality Management (TQM), rapidly changing demographics, and changes
in health insurance and federal and state employment legislation.
To sum up, in the article it has
been represented a brief description of the development of human resource
management as a scientific field that has incredible relevance nowadays. It is difficult to
underestimate the importance of an effective, modern HRM function within an
organization. An employee who retired from HRM twenty years ago would not
recognize the competence and capability of the best HRM organizations today. The
approaches considered in the article can serve a good background for deeper
research of human resource management aimed to increase efficiency of work team
and company as a whole.
References:
1.
Shekshnia, S.V. (2012), The role of the organization in the life of
modern society, 3rd ed., pp. 43.
2.
Novakovskaya, O.A. (2014), Human resource management in unstable business, 189 p.
3.
Bazarov, T. (2011), Human Resource Management. Experience of sociological research,
283 p.
4.
Marx, K., Engels, F. (1867), Daz Kapital, Vol. 23, pp.56.
5.
Taylor, F. (1934), The Principles of Scientific Management, New York Press, 144 p.
6.
Bratton, J., Gold, J. (2001), Human resource management: theory
and practice. 2nd Edition. London, 178 p.
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Dessler, G. (2010), Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 4th ed., 318
p.
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Mayo, E. (2010), The
Human Problem of Industrial Civilization, New York Press, 191 p.
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MacGregor, D. (2010), The Human Side of Enterprise, annotated ed., 405 p.
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11. Whetten, D.A., Cameron,
K.S. (2011), Developing Management Skills, 8th
ed., pp.152-156.
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School Press, 3rd ed., pp. 32-37.