Human

Resource
Management
Professor Tony Keenan

HM-A3-engb 1/2011 (1014)

This course text is part of the learning content for this Edinburgh Business School course.
In addition to this printed course text, you should also have access to the course website in this subject, which will provide you with
more learning content, the Profiler software and past examination questions and answers.
The content of this course text is updated from time to time, and all changes are reflected in the version of the text that appears on
the accompanying website at http://coursewebsites.ebsglobal.net/.
Most updates are minor, and examination questions will avoid any new or significantly altered material for two years following
publication of the relevant material on the website.
You can check the version of the course text via the version release number to be found on the front page of the text, and compare
this to the version number of the latest PDF version of the text on the website.
If you are studying this course as part of a tutored programme, you should contact your Centre for further information on any
changes.
Full terms and conditions that apply to students on any of the Edinburgh Business School courses are available on the website
www.ebsglobal.net, and should have been notified to you either by Edinburgh Business School or by the centre or regional partner
through whom you purchased your course. If this is not the case, please contact Edinburgh Business School at the address below:

Edinburgh Business School

Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh
EH14 4AS
United Kingdom

Tel + 44 (0) 131 451 3090

Fax + 44 (0) 131 451 3002
Email enquiries@ebs.hw.ac.uk
Website www.ebsglobal.net
 Human Resource Management
Tony Keenan is Professor of Human Resource Management at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University.
Professor Keenan has published many papers on recruitment, managerial stress and the education, training and career
development of professional engineers. He has also acted as consultant to a number of international organisations in
these fields. He has held the posts of Dean, Director of the Business School and Head of Department.
First Published in Great Britain in 1998.
© Tony Keenan 1998, 2003, 2005, 2008
The rights of Professor Tony Keenan to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the Publishers. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of the Publishers.
Contents
Module 1 The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management 1/1

1.1 What is Human Resource Management? 1/1

1.2 The Origins and Evolution of HRM 1/2
1.3 Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives of HRM 1/5
1.4 HRM as a Strategic Activity 1/6
1.5 HRM as an Operational Level Activity 1/8
Learning Summary 1/10
Review Questions 1/10

Module 2 Models of Human Resource Management 2/1

2.1 Defining Characteristics of HRM Models 2/1

2.2 Matching Models 2/2
2.3 Harvard-type Models 2/6
Learning Summary 2/11
Review Questions 2/11

Module 3 Key Themes in HRM 3/1

3.1 HRM Themes 3/1

3.2 Quality 3/2
3.3 Organisational Structures 3/5
3.4 Flexibility 3/8
3.5 Team Working 3/13
3.6 The Learning Organisation 3/16
3.7 Organisational Commitment 3/17
3.8 Culture 3/21
3.9 Strategic and Operational HRM 3/24
Learning Summary 3/24
Review Questions 3/25

Module 4 Analysis of Performance Requirements 4/1

4.1 Specifying Performance Requirements 4/1

4.2 Core Abilities, Skills and Motivational Characteristics 4/5
4.3 Trait Versus Behavioural Indicators of Performance 4/6
4.4 Job Analysis Techniques 4/9

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School v

Contents

4.5 Job Analysis and Strategic HRM 4/13

4.6 Competencies 4/14
4.7 Performance and Pay 4/18
Learning Summary 4/25
Review Questions 4/26

Module 5 Recruitment and Selection 5/1

5.1 Selection in Context 5/1

5.2 The Selection Paradigm 5/3
5.3 The Process of Validation 5/5
5.4 The Usefulness of Selection Devices 5/9
5.5 Selection Tools 5/9
Learning Summary 5/20
Review Questions 5/20

Module 6 Performance Appraisal and Performance Management 6/1

6.1 Determinants of Performance 6/1

6.2 The Performance Appraisal Process 6/3
6.3 Recording Appraisal Information 6/8
6.4 Carrying Out Appraisals 6/11
6.5 Performance Appraisal in Practice 6/13
6.6 Performance Management 6/15
Learning Summary 6/17
Review Questions 6/17

Module 7 Training and Development 7/1

7.1 Training, Development and Strategic HRM 7/1

7.2 Determining Training Needs and Priorities 7/3
7.3 Design of Training Programmes 7/5
7.4 Evaluation of Training Effectiveness 7/11
7.5 The Relationship between Training and Development 7/17
7.6 Methods of Employee Development 7/18
7.7 Development for Employability 7/20
Learning Summary 7/21
Review Questions 7/21

vi Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management

 Contents

Module 8 Careers and Career Management 8/1

8.1 The Concept of Career Management 8/1

8.2 Individual Perspectives 8/2
8.3 Organisational Perspectives 8/8
8.4 Gender and Careers 8/16
Learning Summary 8/20
Review Questions 8/20

Module 9 Employee Relations 9/1

9.1 What is Employee Relations? 9/1

9.2 Philosophical Approaches to Employee Relations 9/2
9.3 The Legal Framework 9/5
9.4 Employee Relations Themes 9/6
9.5 Unions and Collective Representation 9/7
9.6 Grievance and Discipline 9/11
9.7 Health and Well-being 9/12
9.8 Techniques for Increasing Involvement at Work 9/18
Learning Summary 9/21
Review Questions 9/22

Appendix 1 Practice Final Examinations and Solutions A1/1

Practice Final Examination 1 1/2

Practice Final Examination 2 1/7
Practice Final Examination 3 1/12
Practice Final Examination 4 1/15

Appendix 2 Answers to Review Questions A2/1

Module 1 2/1
Module 2 2/4
Module 3 2/8
Module 4 2/14
Module 5 2/18
Module 6 2/23
Module 7 2/30
Module 8 2/34
Module 9 2/38

Index I/1

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School vii

Module 1

The Origins and Nature of Human

Resource Management
Contents
1.1 What is Human Resource Management?......................................................... 1/1
1.2 The Origins and Evolution of HRM .................................................................. 1/2
1.3 Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives of HRM ...................................... 1/5
1.4 HRM as a Strategic Activity .............................................................................. 1/6
1.5 HRM as an Operational Level Activity ............................................................. 1/8
Learning summary ....................................................................................................... 1/10
Review Questions......................................................................................................... 1/10

Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
• understand what is meant by human resource management (HRM).
• describe the main factors which led to the emergence of HRM as a discipline.
• explain how HRM is related to business strategy, organisational behaviour, and personnel
management.
• understand the difference between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ HRM.
• comprehend what is meant by strategic HRM.
• explain what is meant by operational HRM.
• describe the main activities involved in operational HRM.

1.1 What is Human Resource Management?

Despite the fact that ideas and techniques derived from human resource management
(HRM) have been adopted in a large number of organisations world-wide, the emergence of
HRM as a field is a relatively recent phenomenon whose origins can be traced back to the
early 1980s. Indeed, because HRM is still in its formative stages, there are controversies
about what exactly is meant by the term itself, about precisely what should and should not
be included within the scope of HRM, and even in some instances about the true benefits of
some of its proposed approaches and techniques for organisations and the individuals
employed in them.
Because there is no unanimously agreed definition as to what actually constitutes HRM
and precisely how it differs from previous approaches to the management of people in
organisations, no attempt will be made to provide a comprehensive definition of the term
here. However, one way to look at HRM is as a set of loosely related ideas, concepts, and

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School 1/1

Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

techniques held together by the common underlying premise that, within any organisation,
maximisation of the utilisation of human resources is crucial to maintain and enhance
competitiveness in a world where those who do not compete successfully simply do not
survive. According to this view, unless organisations can make full use of the potential of
their employees, not only will they perform poorly, but their very existence will be threat-
ened in today’s highly competitive world.
In order to give the reader an insight into the nature of the field, we will first examine its
evolution and development from related fields and activities such as business strategy,
personnel management, and organisational behaviour. We will then consider the various
philosophical strands underpinning HRM thinking and practice. Finally, the distinction
between strategic and operational level HRM activities will be discussed briefly.

1.2 The Origins and Evolution of HRM

One of the most important catalysts for the emergence of HRM came from developments in
strategic thinking about how businesses would need to adapt and change to survive in the
eighties and nineties. This in turn led to questions being asked about the role and function of
traditional personnel management approaches to the management of people in organisa-
tions. Although HRM was essentially meant to replace traditional personnel management,
the two have much in common and indeed some critics of HRM have questioned the extent
to which it really is fundamentally different from its predecessor. Finally, many of the
theories and findings from the closely related field of organisational behaviour have been
utilised by HRM theorists and practitioners and these relationships are discussed briefly
below.

1.2.1 Business Strategy in an Increasingly Competitive Environment

From a Western perspective, the early eighties was a time of much soul searching about the
future competitiveness of the Western economies in general, and Western-based companies
in particular. In brief, the Far East, especially Japan, seemed to have gained significant
competitive advantage over the West. This was seen as a particularly threatening phenome-
non because of a number of other factors, especially the globalisation of markets and the
associated intensification of competition world-wide. Analysis of the Japanese phenomenon
seemed to point towards better utilisation of people resources as a key factor in its success.
It appeared that a number of Japanese management practices such as the focus on excellence
and continual improvement, the provision of an element of autonomy and influence on
decisions for employees, the creation of a culture within the organisation of shared com-
mitment to the success of the organisation, and so on, all served to ensure that each
individual’s potential to contribute as fully as possible to organisational success was realised.
This, the argument ran, was what gave Japanese organisations a competitive advantage over
their Western counterparts.
Further impetus to the view that optimisation of human resources is crucial for success
came in the form of the highly influential study of high performing US companies carried
out by Peters and Waterman (1982). The message from this study largely reinforced that
coming from students of Japanese management practice, since once again, the conclusion
was that how people are managed is the key to competitive advantage and organisational
success.

1/2 Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management

 Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

Around this time the political climate in the West, particularly in the UK and the USA,
was changing in ways which encouraged the development of new thinking about how best to
manage organisations. This was the era of the so-called enterprise culture with its emphasis
on individual entrepreneurial activity as the engine of economic success. In the UK in
particular, the collectivism espoused by the Trade Union movement was seen as a barrier to
economic progress and a millstone around the neck of organisations trying to compete
internationally. Other key elements of the new culture included the prime place given to
market forces and the elevation of the status and role of the consumer in the overall scheme
of things. A notable change here was the extension of the market-led philosophy and
consumerism to the provision of services in the public sector. Thus, for example, in
education students became ‘clients’ and educational ‘products’ now had to be ‘consumer’,
rather than ‘producer’ led. All of these politically inspired ideas served to create a climate
which encouraged radical new thinking about how best to harness people’s abilities and
energies in the face of the perceived imperative for organisations to restore competitive
advantage.
The general view in all of this was that, as far as people management in organisations was
concerned, radical surgery was the order of the day. Merely bolting a few new techniques on
to an existing system on a piecemeal basis would not be sufficient. Rather, a whole new
philosophy of how to manage people most effectively was required. In what has now
become something of a cliché people were now ‘the organisation’s most important asset’.
New and better ways to organise activities which would harness workers’ commitment and
energies would need to be developed. Human resource considerations would need to be
linked into the design and implementation of overall business strategy in a way that had not
been the case in the past. Finally, management of people could no longer be the sole
prerogative of personnel specialists. It would now need to be much more the responsibility
of all managers.

1.2.2 Personnel Management

Traditionally, within large organisations at least, responsibility for human resource matters
lay within the personnel function. A typical list of personnel management functions carried
out in organisations would be very wide and would include advising on activities such as:
recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, training and development, payment and
pension systems, industrial relations, and so on. These are all critically important functions
which are capable of being carried out at two levels. At an operational level, all of these
have to be conducted as a part of the organisation’s everyday activities. However, most also
have a strategic element, in the sense that they can be integrated into the overall objectives
of the organisation. Take the example of training. At the operational level, the personnel
department would be responsible for administering and running courses. At a strategic level,
a relevant issue might be the question of how much should be invested in training, given the
direction in which the organisation is going and what it wants to achieve.
From an HRM perspective, most, if not all, people management issues should be consid-
ered from a strategic as well as an operational perspective. A key issue which now arises is
the extent to which, in the past, traditional personnel management has operated at a strategic
level. A number of writers have suggested that the role of personnel in the past in most
organisations has been operational and reactive, rather than pro-active and strategic
(Torrington, 1995, Hendry, 1995). An example of the reactive nature of personnel manage-
ment can be seen in the field of industrial relations, an area which greatly pre-occupied

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School 1/3

Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

personnel managers in the UK in the seventies. As Hendry (1995) points out, the majority of
personnel managers during that period spent most of their time fire fighting. A dispute
would arise and personnel’s job would be to react to it and solve the immediate problem.
What rarely emerged from personnel departments was a strategy for dealing with industrial
relations problems. To take another example, in the field of training and development,
although personnel departments frequently have large training and development budgets and
are responsible for running a wide variety of training courses, rarely does one find a coherent
strategy linking training to the organisation’s underlying objectives. Again personnel’s role is
seen as operational, rather than strategic. We saw above that there was a view in the eighties
that radical changes in the way in which human resources are managed would be needed to
increase competitiveness. Presumably, personnel managers, with their specialist knowledge,
would be well placed to initiate and influence these changes. Yet Evans and Cowling (1985)
in a study of British personnel managers, found that they were not generally initiators of
major change. Nor were they given a large role in advising on the form such changes should
take.
In summary, it appears that, historically, personnel management has had only a partial
role in the management of people in organisations. It has had an essential role at the
operational level in, for example, advising on and implementing selection systems, payment
methods, training and development programmes, welfare arrangements, and a host of other
activities. It has had much less impact, however, at the strategic level. Thus its role has been
seen as specialist and technical, rather than strategic. This is seen by many as a key difference
between HRM and personnel management and the rise in popularity of HRM can be seen as
largely a response to the need for a more all-embracing approach to the management of
people in organisations.

1.2.3 Organisational Behaviour

The mission of HRM is to maximise the utilisation of human resources. A key issue is, of
course, how this is to be achieved. There are a number of approaches which can be taken
here, but many of them have their origins in theories and research findings in the field of
organisational behaviour (OB). OB is the study of human behaviour and experiences in
organisations. An example of the link between OB and HRM is in the area of employee
motivation. Many HRM interventions are designed to increase employee motivation and
commitment, and OB has provided rich insights into the nature of both of these phenome-
na. The same can be said for the management of rewards. As we shall see later in this text,
the introduction of team working, which is another popular HRM innovation, has its origins
in classical OB studies of autonomous work groups. Many HRM theorists stress the
importance of culture change in managing people more effectively, and this is another area
where many of the building blocks relating to both theory and practice come from OB.
Many other examples could be given, but these should suffice to make the point that much
of HRM relies on prior work in organisational behaviour.
In summary, at least three main influences on the field of HRM can be identified. From
the area of strategy, the economic imperative to gain competitive advantage, both nationally
and internationally, led to the realisation of the vital importance of the need to maximise the
utilisation of human resources. This gave a more central and strategic role to HRM in people
management than had ever been the case for personnel management. Despite the past
shortcomings of personnel management at the strategic level, the techniques used in
personnel management at the operational level have of course had to be absorbed into HRM

1/4 Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management

 Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

in order to ensure the successful implementation of strategic objectives. Finally, many of the
techniques used in HRM are underpinned by theory and research in OB.

1.3 Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives of HRM

1.3.1 Hard Versus Soft HRM
As indicated above, a unifying theme of all HRM approaches is the belief in the critical
importance of human resource utilisation in determining organisational performance.
However, when it comes to the question of how these resources can best be utilised, two
distinct approaches have developed. The ‘hard’ approach sees people as resources just like
any other resource possessed by the organisation, the objective being to maximise their
benefits and minimise their costs to the organisation. This goes hand in hand with an
emphasis on profit as the so-called ‘bottom line’. Some examples of the kind of approach
taken by proponents of hard HRM will illustrate this emphasis on human resources as costs
and on bottom line profits. Hard HRM might emphasise the desirability of changing work
practices so that fewer people could produce the required amount of goods or services. This
would be seen as to the benefit of the organisation since surplus employees could be laid off
to reduce costs. Full-time employees cost more than part-time ones, so that a shift to more
part-time workers would also be advantageous from a hard HRM perspective, as would
outsourcing. The latter involves contracting work out to agencies, giving the organisation
flexibility to increase or decrease numbers of employees as the need arises without redun-
dancy or other costs. These few examples should have given the reader the flavour of the
‘hard’ approach to HRM.
The ‘soft’ approach to HRM, on the other hand, emphasises the human, rather than the
resource, element of the equation. According to this view, people have enormous potential
to increase their contribution to the organisation if the conditions can be set up to release
this potential. In this sense people should be seen as qualitatively different from other
resources. If the organisation can harness employees’ reserves of creativity and energy,
maximise their skills, and enhance their commitment then this will provide the key competi-
tive advantage that is required. The emphasis here is much less on people as cost items and
much more on how to increase their productivity by enhancing their ability to contribute to
the organisation. Consequently, proponents of ‘soft’ HRM tend to focus on methods of
enhancing motivation and capability, such as reward management, training and development,
and so on.

1.3.2 The Nature of Work Motivation and Behaviour

Underpinning HRM theories is a set of assumptions about the nature of people and what
stimulates and motivates them in the work environment. However, as one might expect, not
all theories make precisely the same assumptions. As we shall see later, a common assump-
tion is that the key to producing enhanced performance is to create the conditions where
employees will have a high level of commitment to the organisation. If commitment is high,
a whole series of positive benefits will flow from this, so the theory goes. Another common
assumption is that people will respond positively if they are given more power over decision
making in the workplace. The reader will be able to detect other examples of assumptions
about human behaviour in relation to HRM theories later in the text. An important issue to

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School 1/5

Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

which we will return in later modules is the extent to which the empirical evidence supports
these beliefs and assumptions.

1.3.3 Organisational Conditions and Effectiveness

An integral part of many HRM approaches is a further set of assumptions about the ideal
organisational conditions required to optimise the management of people.
For example, it is argued that a key pre-requisite for the development of employee com-
mitment is the creation of the right kind of organisational culture. Although, as we shall see
later, changing culture is easier said than done, organisational arrangements to facilitate
communications at all levels, systems designed to provide managers with appropriate
leadership skills, and so on, have been introduced with this aim in mind. The emphasis on
culture change is really part of a more general change theme which views the future as
characterised by an environment which is in a constant state of evolution. This creates a
need for organisations continually to adapt and develop in all sorts of ways if they are to
remain competitive.
HRM is often associated with the introduction of new and innovative forms of work
organisation, such as the introduction of various forms of flexible working arrangements.
One example of this is task flexibility, where traditional boundaries between jobs are reduced
or removed so that, for example, within a work group, each individual is expected to be able
to carry out most or all of the different work roles. Another influential set of innovations can
be seen in the introduction of a variety of forms of team working. One mechanism for
creating the kind of power over decision making described above is the use of self-managing
work teams in which much of the authority previously invested in management is devolved
to the team.
Proponents of HRM frequently advocate an element of decentralisation where policies
and procedures are determined locally at the level of operating units, rather than centrally. In
this way HRM arrangements can be tailor made to meet the needs and requirements of
individual operating units. A good example where this approach could be applied is in the
matter of the determination of rates and methods of payment. According to this view, pay
bargaining should take place between employees and management within the operating unit
in the context of local HRM priorities and the prevailing local context. This contrasts with
more collectivist approaches, notably where, for example, pay is determined on a national
level in negotiation with trade unions.
A variant on the theme of decentralisation of activities is the notion that responsibility for
HRM matters should not rest solely with the HRM department within organisations. Rather,
because of the crucial importance of human resources, all managers should take some
responsibility for HRM.

1.4 HRM as a Strategic Activity

What is the linchpin which puts a particular set of HRM philosophies, approaches and
techniques within the context of a specific organisation? According to the theories, this is
driven by the strategic role of HRM. It is proposed that all HRM systems and practices
should be integrated into a coherent policy and that this is derived from the overall business
strategy of the organisation. The overall business strategy provides a vision of what the
business is about, about where it should be going in the future, and about how it should go

1/6 Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management

 Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

about setting and achieving objectives to realise the vision. The process of strategy formula-
tion involves a variety of activities, including the analysis of current strengths and
weaknesses, the evaluation of threats from competitors, and the identification of potential
opportunities for the future. The end result of this process is the formulation of a set of
strategic goals or objectives and the development of a set of policies and procedures to
implement these. Since any strategy can only realistically be successfully implemented
through the people who make up the organisation, HRM clearly has a critical role to play
here. But precisely how does HRM strategy link into this process of overall strategy
formulation?
At one level, the role of HRM is restricted to that of facilitating a pre-determined busi-
ness strategy. For example, suppose an organisation develops a business strategy which aims
to gain competitive advantage by producing, high value added, high quality products. Part of
an HRM strategic objective to support this might be the development of a quality oriented
culture within the organisation. A number of changes could be introduced to help achieve
this objective. For example, communication systems could be introduced continually to
reinforce the quality message. Self-managed teams with responsibility for their own quality
control could be set up. In order to back up the introduction of self-managed teams,
appraisal systems designed to monitor performance might be changed from being carried
out on an individual basis to being done on a group basis. This example illustrates both the
strategic support role of HRM and the integrative nature of strategic HRM where communi-
cation systems, team working, and appraisal systems are considered as a whole in the light of
the strategic objective. The reader might like to try to map out an HRM strategy where the
strategic plan emphasised high volume low cost products.
Strategic HRM as outlined above has essentially an enabling role in the sense that it only
becomes involved in the process after the overall business strategy has been formulated.
However, there are strong arguments for the inclusion of HRM at the strategy formulation
stage. As indicated above, the analysis of the organisation’s existing strengths and weakness-
es is central to strategy formulation. Since the organisation’s human resources are a key
aspect of its strengths and weaknesses, the nature of these must influence strategic choices.
To take just one example, the optimal strategic direction for an organisation with a large
pool of highly educated and skilled employees may be quite different from one where there
is a very small pool of such people. At worst, failure to recognise the people resource input
into strategic decisions may mean that strategic plans are simply not capable of being
implemented. At best, the integration of HRM strategy with overall strategy can optimise the
whole formulation and implementation process.
The notion of strategic HRM as an integrated, universally applicable, approach to people
management is a seductive one. However, some words of caution are in order here before
we proceed to a more detailed examination of what HRM has to offer. Historically, most
HRM concepts and theories originated in the USA and this raises the question of how far
the theories are really applicable in other cultures. For example, as Guest (1994) has pointed
out, there is often an emphasis on individualism, rather than collectivism in HRM writings
(see the discussion of de-centralisation and local, rather than national, pay bargaining above
for an example). Guest shows how this fits well with American values but in Europe there is
much more of a tradition of collectivism than in America. This is exemplified by the greater
role of the trade unions in many European countries. Much is made, especially with soft
HRM approaches, of the idea that HRM is mutually beneficial both for the employee and
the organisation but some critics have questioned whether this is always the case as far as

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School 1/7

Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

employees are concerned. A cynical view of the techniques advocated might see them as
ways of getting more out of employees without a corresponding increase in rewards to them.
Much is also made of the integrative nature of HRM. It is hard to argue with the logic of
such an approach, but how often does it actually happen in practice? Some argue that a
piecemeal approach to the introduction of many of the innovative practices we shall be
discussing in more detail later in the text is actually much more the norm than an integrated
one. It is also questionable to what extent human resource strategy is to be found in practice,
as opposed to in theory.
Criticism of HRM has largely focused on strategic level issues and the theories and phi-
losophies which underpin strategic HRM. On the whole, operational level issues have been
less contentious, especially where, as is often the case, the practices are already well estab-
lished from prior use in a personnel management context. In any case, irrespective of
whether or not a practising manager adheres to a particular HRM theory or philosophy, the
operational issues have to be dealt with effectively on a day-to-day basis. It is to these that
we now turn.

1.5 HRM as an Operational Level Activity

The scope of HRM at an operational level is very wide and some selectivity in what can be
covered in this relatively short text is inevitable. This will be done on the following basis.
Areas of activity where well established tools and techniques exist will be favoured, especially
where they are broadly applicable across different countries and cultures. On the other hand,
procedures which are very culture specific are beyond the scope of the text and these will
not be covered in detail. Finally, some topics have already been comprehensively covered
elsewhere in the MBA Distance Learning series and these will be not be dealt with in depth
in this text.
At the operational level, HRM has much in common with conventional approaches to
personnel management. Nevertheless, an HRM perspective will often influence both the
relative importance attributed to a particular activity and the precise way in which it is carried
out. Thus, while both traditional personnel management and HRM accept the importance of
effective recruitment and selection for organisational performance, the emphasis on the
qualities sought in recruits may be different. For example, strategic considerations frequently
emphasise the need for organisations continually to adapt and change to meet the demands
of a changing environment. This implies a greater focus on attitudinal qualities in selection,
such as an openness to new ideas and a willingness to accept and even welcome change, than
might have been the case in the past. To take another example, in the UK and Western
Europe the management of industrial relations and collective negotiations with trade unions
has traditionally been central stage in the work of personnel managers. However, some have
argued that the individualistic orientation of HRM and its tendency to assume that manage-
ment and workers have common interests serves to undermine the importance of traditional
collective industrial relations. As Guest (1989) puts it ‘its underlying values … would appear
to be essentially unitarist and individualistic in contrast to the more pluralist and collective
values of traditional industrial relations’. It follows from this that the approach of HRM to
industrial relations would be quite different from that of personnel management.
We noted above that a key element in strategy formulation was the identification of the
organisation’s strengths and weaknesses. Of course to do this effectively methods need to be
developed at the operational level to enable the organisation to specify in a systematic way

1/8 Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management

 Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

what is meant by good performance. This has to be done at multiple levels ranging from the
macro level of the organisation as a whole, through sub-units such as work teams, all the way
down to the level of individual job roles. Effective specification and measurement of
performance is an essential HRM activity at all levels. Its importance at the macro level can
be illustrated with reference to a scenario which will be familiar to readers from the UK.
Within the last fifteen years or so, a large number of publicly owned organisations have been
privatised by government. One frequent argument for doing this has been that ‘waste and
inefficiency ’ will be eliminated by privatisation. But precisely how was ‘waste and inefficien-
cy’ (i.e. poor performance) measured by the proponents of this view and how valid was this
measure? Similarly, to show that privatisation produced an improvement, it would be
necessary to demonstrate by systematic measurement that an increase in efficiency had
actually been achieved. Taking another example at the small group level, to show that team
working is more effective than other work arrangements it is first necessary to be able to
measure team performance systematically. At the individual job role level, we have already
seen that in HRM much is made of the added value people can provide if properly managed.
But before we can manage them effectively, we need to know what end point we are trying
to achieve. In other words, before we can take steps to enhance the performance of
individual workers, we need to be able to define systematically what constitutes good
performance in an employee in the first place.
As already mentioned, selection is a central operational level HRM activity in all organisa-
tions. Selection is in many ways the foundation upon which all other HRM techniques are
built because it provides the raw material with which the HRM specialist has to work. Once
individuals have been recruited into the organisation, their performance needs to be
managed effectively. Effective management has a number of elements, often beginning with
a systematic assessment of their past performance known as performance appraisal. As we
will see, performance appraisal has traditionally been used for a variety of purposes, such as
assessing training and development needs, setting future performance targets, salary
determination, and so on. More recent HRM approaches seek to go beyond this by integrat-
ing appraisal into a broader scheme of performance management in which appraisal is linked
to organisational objectives as a whole. Training and development has long been a core area
of activity in personnel management and, if anything, it has assumed greater importance
within HRM. If people are a vital resource then it obviously makes sense to invest heavily in
their training. The planning and management of careers in the mutual interest of employees
and the organisation has also traditionally been seen as being an important responsibility of
the personnel department, at least in the majority of large organisations. However, as
Herriot (1992) has pointed out, the nature of organisations has been changing in recent
years. This has come about partly as a result of the adoption of HRM theories and practices,
but also for other reasons. These changes have profound implications for careers and career
management, as we shall see when we come to take a detailed look at this topic.
These core operational areas of specification of performance requirements in a way that
can be measured systematically, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal and
performance management, training and development, and career management, will be dealt
with in depth in the modules to follow. It is recognised that some areas often regarded as
important HRM activities will not be covered in detail in this text. These include payment
systems, industrial relations, and the legal framework within which HRM activities are
carried out. These have not been dealt with in detail either because they are already covered
comprehensively in other Heriot-Watt Distance Learning texts, or because the HRM

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School 1/9

Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

practices in question differ fundamentally across cultural and national boundaries. These
topics will, however, be referred to selectively where they are relevant to other issues being
discussed.

Learning Summary

The main impetus for the emergence of HRM was the perceived need, on the part of a
number of large organisations, to improve their competitive position both nationally and
internationally. Better utilisation of human resources through the adoption of HRM systems
and practices was seen as the key to achieving this objective. Although HRM has much in
common with traditional personnel management, it attempts to overcome some of the
apparent inadequacies of personnel management as typically practised in the past. This is
particularly true of the strategic approach adopted by HRM. Operational level HRM, which
is concerned with the everyday management of people in organisations, also shares much
with more traditional personnel management approaches. However, even here there are
differences, due mainly to the impact of strategic HRM considerations on operational
activities.

Review Questions

True/False Statements
Each statement requires a single response – ‘True’ or ‘False’.

1.1 An important underlying premise of HRM is the need to maximise the utilisation of human
resources if organisations are to compete successfully.

1.2 It is unanimously agreed that HRM is fundamentally different from personnel management.

1.3 A major difference between HRM and personnel management is the more strategic orientation of
HRM.

1.4 When a personnel department responds rapidly to threatened strike action by the labour force
and manages to defuse the situation it can be said to be managing people in a strategic way.

1.5 Historically, traditional personnel management has had less impact at the strategic level than at
the operational level.

1.6 ‘Soft’ HRM emphasises the importance of developing people so that they are capable of
contributing more to the organisation.

1.7 Most HRM theorists agree that the management of people is too important a task to be in the
hands of anyone other than specialists from the HRM department.

1.8 Task flexibility is the term used to describe the situation where an individual is expected to carry
out a variety of different work roles.

1/10 Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management

 Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

1.9 Strategic HRM argues for an integrated approach to people management in organisations.

1.10 According to Guest (1994), HRM theories tend to emphasise individualism, rather than
collectivism.

1.11 According to Guest (1989), HRM and traditional personnel management are likely to have a
similar approach to industrial relations.

1.12 Although the nature of organisations has been changing in recent years, these changes have not
had any major implications for individuals’ careers.

Short Essay Questions

1.13 What were the major factors which led to the emergence of human resource management?

1.14 How does human resource strategy relate to general business strategy?

Apply What You Have Learned: HRM in Action

You are a personnel manager in a large manufacturing organisation in the electronics industry. The
company has plants world-wide, including the USA and the Far East. You are currently seconded
from your normal job on a one year assignment as special personnel adviser to the organisation’s
newly created Scenario Review Unit. You have just received the following memorandum from the
head of the unit. Your task is to draft a suitable reply.
Memorandum:
From: Head of Scenario Review Unit
To: Special Personnel Advisor
I have just returned from a high level conference on Strategic Human Resource
Management and Achieving Competitive Advantage. They had some very high powered
speakers at the conference from all over the world. They put forward a pretty convinc-
ing case that we really need to fundamentally change how we manage people in our UK
operation. So much so, that I have decided to recommend to our main board that we
put their ideas into practice as soon as possible. I am pretty confident that I know what
is required and I have already worked out the main changes which need to be made.
However, before going to the main board, I thought I ought to run my ideas past you as
a personnel expert, particularly since you have the benefit of all that up-to-date
knowledge you obtained by studying for your Distance Learning MBA. I have outlined
my ideas below. Please let me have your considered comments in due course.
Clearly HRM is the key to improving our use of human resources and is a vast im-
provement on the old personnel management approach. Consequently the first thing we
need to do is scrap our existing personnel departments throughout the business, make
the individuals concerned redundant, and get in some new HRM experts. We will only
need one or two new people, however, since HRM theory tells us that line managers
should now be expected to do the bulk of what used to be personnel work. The
seminar speakers suggested that personnel management is not strategic enough, but I
think we may be an exception to this, since we have always been pretty good at reacting
to crises. Anyway, I am producing a business strategy for the UK side of our operation

Human Resource Management Edinburgh Business School 1/11

Module 1 / The Origins and Nature of Human Resource Management

which I will pass on to the HRM experts so that they can implement whatever is
necessary on the human resource side. By the way, I do not think we should go for this
so-called soft HRM approach – if the workers think we are soft they will walk all over
us!
It seems we will need to change the culture of the organisation. As I understand it, this
is quite a straightforward thing to do. Maybe you could take this on and organise a
suitable course for people to go on. Another thing, we will no longer need to employ
those expensive organisational behaviour consultants, since their ideas are obviously out
of date now that HRM has taken over the field. Whatever happens, if we do decide to
adopt a strategic approach to HRM, it is likely to involve a whole new approach to what
we do, rather than introducing a few new ideas on a piecemeal basis. Once we get the
new systems up and running successfully, it might be a good idea to suggest to our
colleagues in the US and the Far East that they should follow our lead and adopt an
HRM approach too.

1.15 Does this all seem fine to you?

References

Evans, A. and Cowling, A. (1985). ‘Personnel’s part in organisation restructuring’, Personnel Management,
January, 14–17.
Guest, D.E. (1989). ‘HRM: Implications for industrial relations’, New Perspectives in Human Resource
Management, ed. Storey, J., London and New York: Routledge.
Guest, D.E. (1994). ‘Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management: towards a
European approach’,European Work and Organizational Psychologist, 4, 251–270.
Hendry, C. (1995). Human Resource Management: A Strategic Approach to Employment, Oxford: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Herriot, P. (1992). The Career Management Challenge, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Peters, T.J. and Waterman, R.H. Jr (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run
Companies, New York: Harper & Row
Torrington, D. and Hall, L. (1995). Personnel Management: HRM in Action, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice
Hall.

1/12 Edinburgh Business School Human Resource Management