Definition of Human Resource Management

Everything you need to know about the various definitions of human resource management. Human resource management is a systematic process of managing people working in the organization.

Human resource management is a managerial process of acquiring and engaging the required workforce, appropriate for the job and concerned with developing, maintenance and utilization of work force.

According to Decenzo and Robbins, “HRM is concerned with the people dimension” in management.

Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization is essential to achieve organisational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of organization – government, business, education, health or social action.

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Human Resource Management (HRM) is that part of management process which develops and manages the human element of the enterprise considering their resourcefulness in terms of total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents, aptitudes and potentialities for effectively contributing to the organisational objectives.

The most important asset of the organization is its employees, so the prime responsibility of management is to manage human resource in effective manner.

The basic function of management is to bring employees and organization on the same platform in order to meet the individual goals as well as organizational goals at the same time.

The management of human resources is an art because the sequences of growth and changes that occurs in life.

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Learn about the definitions of human resource management propounded by various authors, management thinkers and institutions.

Human Resource Management Definitions by Different Authors, Management Thinkers and Various Institutions

Human Resource Management Definitions – Given by Eminent Authors Like: Pigors and Myers, Byars and Rue, Ivancevich and Glueck

People at work at different levels and departments of the organisation plus their inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills as exemplified in their talents and aptitudes.

Human resources are also identified by other terms like ‘personnel’, ‘people at work’ ‘human assets’ and ‘human capital’. Human assets are intangible as they exist within the human resources. Sumantra Ghoshal has used the term ‘human capital’ to represent human resources. Human capital consists of intellectual capital, social capital and emotional capital.

Managing people at work in various settings. In general, human resource means people. Human Resource Management refers to, Michael J. Jucius has defined human resources as “a whole consisting of inter-related, interdependent and interacting physiological, psychological, sociological and ethical components”.

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Definitions:

Pigors and Myers – “It is basically a method of developing potentialities of employees so that they feel maximum satisfaction of their work and give their best efforts to the organization”.

Byars and Rue – “Human resource management encompasses those activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human resources of an organization Human resource functions refer to those tasks and duties performed in organizations to provide for and coordinate human resources”.

Ivancevich and Glueck – “Human resource management is the function performed in organizations’ that facilitate the most effective use of people (employees) to achieve organizational and individual goals”.

Human Resource Management Definitions – Explained!

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the governance of an organization’s employees. HRM is sometimes referred to simply as Human Resources (HR).

The first definition of human resource management is that it is a process that will manage people in a company in a defined and structured way.

The HR is supposed to do the following tasks- staffing, hiring people, retention of employees, managing pays and perks and setting them, performance management, managing the changes and many more. This definition is a traditional one and is a modern version of personnel management.

Another definition for human resource management states that managing the people or employees in an organization can be done in a macro perspective which means that managing employees will be in the form of a relationship between management and employees.

Human resources are the people who work for the organization; human resource management is really employee management with an emphasis on those employees as assets of the business. In this article, employees are sometimes referred to as human capital.

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HR professionals recruit, manage and provide direction for people who work in an organization to maximize profitability and employee satisfaction. They typically develop and administer policies related to hiring, performance management, compensation, safety and wellness, employee benefits, communication and training.

Human resource management is often referred as personnel management.

Edwin Flippo defines HRM as- “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are accomplished”

According to French Wendell- “Personnel management is a major component of the broader managerial function and has roots and branches extending throughout and beyond each organization. It is a major sub-system of all organizations.”

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The human resources approach is based on a number of principles, some of which are as follows:

(i) Human resource as an asset – Employees are assets to an organization. The time and resources employed in managing and developing them are an investment that the organization makes for better returns in the present and in future.

(ii) Proper catering of program and policies – Policies, programs and practices must cater to the needs of employees and should help them in their work and also in their personnel development.

(iii) Proper conductive work environment – It is necessary to create and maintain a conducive work environment, to encourage the employees to develop and harness their knowledge and skills for the benefit of the organization.

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Human resource policies and practice should be in alignment with the goal of balancing individual and organizational needs. This can be achieved through a mutual process where the organization and employees help each other to achieve their goals.

Human Resource Management Definitions – According to Famous Management Thinkers like French Wendell, Gary Dessler, Story and Bratton and Gold

According to French Wendell – “Human Resource Management is the recruitment, selection, development, utilisation of and accommodation to human resources by organisations.”

The human resources of an organisation consist of all employees working at different levels in the organisation. Management of human resources is concerned with procurement, development, utilisation and maintenance of human resources for the accomplishment of organisational objectives.

According to Gary Dessler – “Human Resource Management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and attending to their labour relations, health, safety and fairness concerns.”

According to Story (1995), HRM is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.

Bratton and Gold (2007), defined HRM as a strategic approach to manage employment relations, which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieve competitive advantages, this is being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices.

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This definition of Human Resource Management (HRM) is quite comprehensive. It not only talks of functions like acquisition, training, appraisal and compensation but also of ‘human orientation’ by giving emphasis to human relations and health and safety of human resources.

In other words, HRM involves all management decisions and practices that directly influence the people who work for the organisation.

Since organisation is run by people, HRM is an integral part of management. It involves taking decisions and their execution for the effective management of people for the accomplishment of organisational objectives and also for the satisfaction of the needs and aspirations of people.

Effective performance of each of the HR function like procurement, training, compensation appraisal and maintenance requires sounds decisions like number and quality of people required to fill the jobs, contents of training program, compensation system, incentive plans, criteria of appraisal, transfer and promotion, employees’ welfare schemes, etc.

All such decisions are put into practice for the mutual benefit of both the organisation and the people working for the organisation.

Human Resource Management Definitions – Propounded by Edwin B. Flippo, Decenzo and Robbins, Pulapa Subba Rao and National Institute of Personal Management of India

Human resource management is a systematic process of managing people working in the organization. Human resource management is a managerial process of acquiring and engaging the required workforce, appropriate for the job and concerned with developing, maintenance and utilization of work force.

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Edwin B. Flippo defined HRM as “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are achieved.”

The National Institute of Personal Management (NIPM) of India defined human resources – personal management as “that part of management which is concerned with people at work and with their relationship within an enterprise. Its aim is to bring together and develop into an effective organization of the men and women who make up enterprise and having regard for the well – being of the individuals and of working groups, to enable them to make their best contribution to its success”.

According to Decenzo and Robbins, “HRM is concerned with the people dimension” in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization is essential to achieve organisational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of organization – government, business, education, health or social action.

Human resource management means management of all employees from top level to lower level and all employers the managing director, board of directors and all people who contribute their services towards attainment of organisational goals.

According to Pulapa Subba Rao, “human resources management (HRM) is managing (planning, organising, directing and controlling) the functions of employing, developing, compensating and utilising human resources, resulting in the creation and development of human and industrial relations which would shape the future policies and practices of human resource management, with a view to contribute proportionately (due to them) to the organisational, individual and social goals”.

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Human resource management deals with identification of required workforce and placement of personnel, appraisal of performance of staff, training and development of employees, setting the salary and compensation payable to employees, employee’s welfare and establishing a cordial and harmonious relationship amongst all working within the organisation.

Identification of the required work force involves identifying the quantitative requirement i.e., number of people required to be employed as well the quality of the workforce i.e., the talent, knowledge, skill and ability of the workforce. Employing the appropriate person for the job is a major concern of the management.

Human resource management aims at maximising the performance of the employees and attaining organizational success through developing, utilising and maintaining the resource and establishing a favourable working relationship between the employees and the employer and amongst the employees working in the organization.

Management of human resources is not an easy task as it faces challenges relating to corporate reorganisation, changing demographics of workforce, rules and regulations of government relating to the human resources and so on. HRM considers all internal and external environmental factors affecting utilization of human resources, at the time of planning and execution of human resource management functions.

Human resource management is the process of bringing people and organization together so that the goals of each are met. It tries to secure the best from people by winning their whole-hearted cooperation. HRM is concerned with the development and integration of strategies which are integrated with corporate strategies and ensure that the culture, values, and structure of the organizations and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members contribute to the achievement of its goals.

Over the past few years, with the rapidly changes in the business environment, human resource have taken the centre stage.

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Consider the following example:

1. Adi Godrej- It is really important for me to spend more time with my people. We have had a number of HRD consultants, but HRD initiatives are time-consuming and one has to be patient for cultural and mindset changes.

2. Philips- According to Rama Chandra, MD, Philips India, “Human resource department is the centre of competency”.

3. HLL – “At Hindustan Lever, the accent is on hiring people who are even better than the ones at HLL. HLL is now is a people and strategy company.”

HRM has come to be recognized as an inherent part of management. Its objective is the maintenance of better human relations in the organization by the development, application and evaluation of policies, procedures and programmes relating to HR to optimize their contribution towards the realization of organizational objectives.

HRM is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. HRM deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organizational development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration and training. HRM is emerged with getting better results with collaboration of people at work and relationship within an enterprise.

Human Resource Management Definitions – What is Human Resource Management?

Human Resource Management is a multidisciplinary organizational function, dealing with effective management of people at work. Today raw materials and technology are available to every organization in every country in the world. The only thing that separates the winners from the losers is the quality, character, sincerity, commitment and training of the workforce. People are the main resource in any organization.

They have the power to make or break the organization. Various studies confirm that most successful managers are not necessarily those with the most business skills, rather they are those with the most finely honed people skills those who have been able to get ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Managers must believe the power and potential of the people.

The human resource is much more valuable than the capital resource. Hence corporations must start capitalizing on the hearts and brains of their people, not just their backs and hands. All these are possible through proper human resource management.

HRM is a combination of people oriented management practices that views employees as assets and not as cost. The main objective of HRM is to create and maintain a pool of skilled and committed workforce to gain competitive advantage.

The differences in the interpretation of HRM have created two different schools of thought- soft and hard variants of HRM, Storey (1992). The Soft school of thought focuses on employee training, development, commitment and participation. This school defines HR functions aimed at developing and enhancing motivation, commitment, and quality of employees.

The hard school of thought deals with strategy where human resources are used to achieve organizational goals. It concentrates on cost control and head count strategies, especially in business processes like downsizing, lowering the wages, reducing comfort breaks etc.

The personnel, manpower, human resources or people at work of an organisation consist of all individuals engaged in the various organisational activities, regardless of levels. Human resources have been defined as “from the national point of view, the knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes obtained in the population; whereas from the viewpoint of the individual enterprise, they represent the total of the inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills as exemplified in the talents and aptitudes of its employees.”

Jucius Michael calls human resources, as ‘human factors’, which refer to “a whole consisting of inter-related inter-dependent and inter-acting, physiological, psychological, sociological and ethical components.” Thus, human resources are multi-dimensional in nature. People working in the organisation have different needs at different times. These needs may be physiological, social and psychological.

Objectives of HR Manager are:

1. To create and maintain good relations amongst all those working in the organisation.

2. To bring about efficient utilisation of the available human resources in the organisation.

3. To provide justice to the employees in the form of good working conditions and attractive pays along with good promotional avenues.

4. To perform the necessary managerial or line functions relating to human resources.

Human Resource Management Definitions – According to Flippo, French Wendell and Michael J. Jucious

Human resource management (HRM), is nothing but the management of human resources. The true strength of any organization is its manpower and a good manpower is the result of a good HR team.

HR is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing on policies. HR departments and units in organizations typically undertake a number of activities, including employee benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewarding. HR also concerns itself with organizational change and industrial relations, that is, the balancing of organizational practices with requirements arising from collective bargaining and from governmental laws.

Human resource management or simply HR, can also be called as the management process of an organization’s workforce, or human resources.

It is responsible for the attraction, selection, training, assessment, and rewarding of employees, while also overseeing organizational leadership and culture.

Human Resources is a business field focused on maximizing employee productivity. Human Resources professionals manage the human capital of an organization and focus on implementing policies and processes. They can be specialists focusing in on recruiting, training, employee relations or benefits.

Recruiting specialists are in charge of finding and hiring top talent. Training and development professionals ensure that employees are trained and have continuous development. This is done through training programs, performance evaluations and reward programs. Employee relations deal with concerns of employees when policies are broken, such as harassment or discrimination.

According to Edwin B. Flippo, “Human resource management is the planning; organising, directing and controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resource to the end that individual and societal objectives are accomplished.”

French Wendell states, “Personnel or human resource management is the recruitment, selection, development, utilisation, compensation and movement of the human resources by the organisation.”

According to Michael J. Jucious, Human resource management is that field of management which has to do with planning, organising and controlling the functions of procuring, developing, maintaining and utilising a labour force such that the-

(a) Objectives for which the company is established are effectively achieved.

(b) Objectives of all levels of personnel are served to the highest possible degree.

Human resource management is a crucial part of managerial process which involves recruitment and selection of right persons for right jobs, training, developing, motivating human resource and utilising the human resource in achieving the organisational goals.

Activities included in HRM are:

1. Human resource planning.

2. Recruitment and selection.

3. Placement and induction.

4. Training and development.

5. Compensation/wage plans.

6. Designing incentive wage plans.

Human Resource Management Definitions

There are various definitions of HRM.

Some of them are given here:

It deals with the staffing functions of the organization such as human resources planning, recruitment, training, career planning, compensation package, and performance appraisal.

It deals with all aspects of human resources that enable effective use of the same to improve organizational effectiveness.

It supports activities such as training, recruitment, orientation, motivation of employees, and compensation-related issues.

It refers to the practices and policies related to management of people.

It consists of various activities required to enhance the effectiveness of an organization’s people to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

Thus, the HRM function deals with various activities ranging from staffing needs of an organization such as deployment of required staff through contractors, recruitment, and training of staff to create an efficient working environment.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a new concept. Personnel management is a traditional concept of management followed all these years. When we study HRM, it is necessary to know its relation with traditional management.

When we consider the development of HRM in a time perspective, there are many stages the management has passed through till it reached the present Human Resource Management stage. A period of two decades (1930 -1950) in management history saw human relation movement. Many human relation scientists contributed to management principles.

These principles paved the way for a change in the traditional concepts of personnel management. On perusal of the personnel philosophy and human resource philosophy, one can conclude that the Human Resource Management is the outcome of Personnel Management.

Personnel Management, as it is seen today, holds many concepts regarding the nature of labour and what should be the attitude of management towards employees and so on. These attitudes have been a matter of controversy. The attitude of management towards labour has been called as personnel philosophy. This philosophy was inadequate to have an integrated approach between management and workers.

The behaviour pattern and attitude of management towards the employees have always affected their way of thinking about management and also their work culture. The attitude of management and corresponding approaches like commodity approach, protective approach or social approach were not effective enough to integrate the work force and management of an enterprise to achieve the desired goals.

The main factors responsible for the growth of human resource management are industrial revolution, use of science and technology in an industry, awakening amongst workers, cultural and social changes (social values of labour, etc.), the size of business organizations, and change in the Government’s attitude towards labour management and business.

Over and above, we are facing a change in the system of economic policy of our country from the old monopolistic, non-competitive to a new system of liberalization. Liberalization has made the country to stand in the midst of the global system from its traditionally self-reliant stand.

This scenario relates to market forces, large corporations with broad equity and different strategies of human resource. In fact, the practice of management consists of aspects of development, skills for achieving productivity and globalisation; than ever before.

Understanding the dynamic aspects of human resource management and development of individual skills became the core functions of organizational development. It is not out of place to mention here that in the words of Oliver Sheldon, “No Industry can be efficient so long as the basic factor of human remains unrecognised.” So the human resource is the principal component of any organisation.

Human Resource Management Definition

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the most happening function. This is so because people offer competitive advantage to a firm and managing people is the domain of HRM. An organization enjoys competitive advantage when it is the only one which can offer a product at a price and quality while its competitors cannot do so.

People offer skills, capabilities, systems, practices, speed, language, bonding and behaviours, which help execute firm’s strategies successfully. Strategy implementation cannot be done by physical resources such as – technology, buildings, machines, and materials.

It is the people who can craft strategies and execute then effectively. Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM once commented, “You can get capital and erect buildings, but it takes people to build a business”.

With this backdrop, HRM may be defined as:

We can say that HRM is concerned with policies and practices that ensure the best use of the human resources for fulfilling the organizational and individual goals.

Organizations have been becoming complex over the past few years due to the fast-changing business environment and growing uncertainty. Human resource management (HRM) is essential to the management of an organization to effectively respond to the demands of this complex environment.

The difference in the performance of two organizations having the same physical resources can only be traced to the difference that they have in their human resource base and the management practices followed to manage human resources.

The most important asset of the organization is its employees, so the prime responsibility of management is to manage human resource in effective manner. The basic function of management is to bring employees and organization on the same platform in order to meet the individual goals as well as organizational goals at the same time. The management of human resources is an art because the sequences of growth and changes that occurs in life.

These changes occurs in all domain of development of physical, emotional, social, and cognitive. It is human capacities which transform the passive natural resources to achieve agents of production. Human’s productive capacity depends upon his ability to acquire knowledge and put it into economic use. The management of human resources philosophies is the basis on which policies and practices guiding an organization’s behavior can be developed and implemented.

These are:

1. Accumulation – This philosophy translates in to policies and practices designing to attract many good candidates very carefully and consistently.

2. Utilization – In this philosophy, individuals are generally selected with attention to technical skills although personal characteristics are still important.

3. Facilitation – The third philosophy for treating and managing employee in the organisation is called facilitation. This holds that individuals must have technical skills, it is important that they are able to work together in close reciprocal interaction. Employee development and enhancement are valued, but the organization facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge and abilities because in current scenario, the growth of organization is directly related to its knowledge base employees.

In the nut shell, we can say that the accumulation is based on maximum involvement and creativity, whereas the utilization is based on commitment and high control, and facilitation is based on new knowledge and creation of knowledge. The proper management of human resources is a strategic approach in which the managers can signify, identify, develop, manage and utilize the inherent capabilities of every human.