Mohammad Mosaddek Hussain :
The concept of human resource management has come into practice since the growth of industrialization after the industrial revolution that lasted for 200 years and its far-reaching impact is still prevalent in the industrial world. At the outset, it was taken the name personnel management although there are some delicate differences between the two but in practice the principal functions are mostly similar in the processes of human capital management. Thereafter practitioners of human resource management and administrators find some new strategies in the management of personnel in different types of industries and organizations for effective growth, stability, employee development and satisfaction and overall development based on the practical experience and continual human capital research in the last decade and still growing the research base in this field. To achieve the growth and development practitioners and researchers of this field exert their experience and knowledge in using strategy for raising competency among all level of employees with a view to ensuring development and business growth of industries and organizations of different types across the world.
To this end in view, it is manifested that the strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a supporting branch of human resource management. Further, SHRM means combination of strategy and HRM for the development of the organization through strategy and competent employees. It also refers to linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives to achieve goals of an organization. It also helps in improving the performance of innovation flexibility and competitive advantage. In an organization SHRM means accepting and involving the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation and implementation of the company’s strategies through HR activities with a view to maximum utilization of employees and assets as a whole for achieving its overall goal in the stipulated time.
Strategic Human Resource Management & Its Principal Features
Linkage of HR policy with organizational strategy in order to achieve organizational goals and objective
Linkage of individual HR intervention so that they are mutually supportive in the activities of the organizations.
Why Strategic Human Resouce Management
Globalization and internationalization of market integration
Increased technological change
Cross culture issues
Increased competition
Increasing new concept
Emerging strategies for change
Raising competent personnel and business process
By thorough analysis of evolution of HRM the outcome highlights that their will be modern trends be occurring in HRM like strategic human resource management that might be mandatory for every organization to treat all employees in a well manner attitude because they are the assets of an organization which helps in achieving organization goal by their whole-hearted efforts.
Needless to say that, for any organization, the employees are the biggest resources in terms of overall growth. That’s pretty much how the term was coined. However, the practice has been in existence, seems some time before it was given a name.
According to Anglia Ruskin University of UK mentions that communication is the oldest existential phenomenon on earth. Well, if that’s the case then human resource management (HRM) would get the second place in the sibling hierarchy. In spite of being added as a subject in management courses fairly late, HRM has been a concept that was utilized ever since human beings started following an organized way of life. So shall we start digging up its history?
It is also worth-mentioned that some of the vital principles of HRM were also used in prehistoric periods. Thereafter the knowledge was recorded and passed on to the next generation about safety, health, hunting, and gathering those were the activities of the tribal groups. It was manifested that from 1000 B.C. to 2000 B.C., the development of more advanced HR functions was prevalent. As history shown, the Chinese are known to be the first to use employee screening techniques, way back in 1115 B.C. And turns out it was not Donald Trump who started “the apprentice” system. They were the Greek and Babylonian civilizations, ages before the medieval times.
Moreover, HRM has seen a lot of nick naming in its different ages. In naming the same and since it was recognized as a separate and important function in the business and organizational activities, it has been called “personnel relations” then it evolved to “industrial relations”, then “employee relations” and then, finally, came to its name “human resources”. Actually, it is recognized by the practitioners and experts that “human resources” is the most appropriate name for it. It, quintessentially, proves the importance of the human beings working in the organization for achieving organizational goal.
In the event of the great Industrial Revolution, converted the US economy from agriculture-based to industry-based.
This led them to require an extremely well-organized structure to be followed for creating a system of management. Further, this led them to recruit a lot of people for organizational management in an effective way. More so, the industrial revolution brought in maddening amounts of immigration. Again, to create employment for all the immigrants, recruitment and management of the recruited individuals gained vitality. As such, there was a blaring need for Human Resource Management for gaining and achieving business goal.
Furthermore, in the early stage of HR management, in general, followed a social welfare approach for employees. It aimed at helping immigrants in the process of adjusting to their jobs and to an “American” life. The aim of these programs was to assist immigrants in learning English and acquiring housing and medical care. Also, these techniques used to promote supervisory training to ensure an increase in productivity as a whole.
Since the advent of “labor unions” that emerged in the 1790s, the power in the hands of the employees multiplied considerably and increased at a rapid pace by the 1800s and furthermore in the 1900s and the successive years. This led to the HR department being more capable of politics and diplomacy. The two feats that were quintessential to the importance of HR were; the fact that it was the HR department that got the management and the labor unions to come on common grounds. They basically worked on getting the management to see things from the labor perspective and grant them medical and educational benefits. The other would be Frederick W. Taylor’s (1856-1915) Scientific Management. Ultimately, this book had tremendous impact on attaining better productivity from low-level production workers in the later years as well.
It is also a tremendous milestone that the B.F. Goodrich Company, the pioneers in designing a corporate employee department to address the concerns of the employees in 1900. National Cash Register followed suit in 1902 by forming a separate department to handle employee grievances, record keeping, wage management and other employee-related functions. The Personnel Managers started seeing more sunshine since the Wagner’s Act (aka National Labor Relations Act) in 1935. There was a shift in focus from worker’s efficiency to efficiency through work satisfaction, thanks to the Hawthorne studies around the 1930s to 1940s.
Therefore, by the end of the 1970s, HRM had taken over the world and practicing scientific employees management strategy that are helpful and appropriate as per need of the employees and organizations! Almost all big and medium scale industries had a department to manage their recruitment, employee relations, record-keeping, salaries and wages and employee welfare approaches etc. Not only that, during the 1980s, the importance of HR continued to grow for several reasons like increase in skilled labor, training, regulation compliance and dismissal, etc. The HR managers were the ones who did the hiring and the firing activities and performing legal applications as per system .
Nowadays, it is worth-mentioned that HR has the same importance as the other departments in the organizations, in some corporates, it attributes more and more importance. With the constant increase in education, technology and frequent fluctuations in economic status and structures, it is revealed that HR is the oldest, most mature and yet, the most efficient of all management approaches that brings growth and stability of the organizations and enterprises as a whole.
