Human Resource Management and the Internal Environment Essay

Human Resource Management and the Internal Environment - Essay Example HRM of one form or another are a necessary part of any company as it serves many important needs. HRM management in organisations has an increasing impact on individuals, other organisations and the community. It is important, therefore, to understand how HRM function and the pervasive influences which they exercise over the behaviour of people and organisation. Ulrich and Lake in their book "Organizational Capability: Competing from the inside out" (1990) wrote: Specifically, HRM is concerned with achieving objectives in the areas summarized below. HRM is generally identified therefore as an element or support concept. In certain organisations, however, such as employment agencies, personnel is very much part of the productive process and will be a task function. In other organisations, noticeably in service industries, the role of HRM can also be closely associated with a task function. For example, in the hotel and catering industry many members of the workforce are in direct contact with the customer and are seen as being involved in achieving the objectives of the organisation. People are part of the finished product for which the customer is paying. Customer satisfaction is likely to be affected as much by the courtesy, helpfulness and personal qualities of the staff as by the standard of food and beverage, accommodation or other facilities. This places particular importance on the personnel function. So, different organisations need t o employ different concepts of HRM in order to achieve their goals. In general, Human Resource Management is concerned more with: a long-term rather than a short-term perspective; the psychological contract based on commitment rather than compliance; self-control rather than external controls; an Unitarian rather than a pluralist perspective; an organic rather than a bureaucratic structure; integration with line management rather than specialist or professional roles; and maximum utilisation rather than cost-minimisation. HRM uses different concept providing different models of employees' treatment according to the organizational interests. The hard and soft models of HRM were introduced by John Storey in 1989. He supposes that HRM can be regarded as a "set of interrelated policies with an ideological and philosophical underpinning" (Storey 1989, p.31). The four aspects he underlines are: beliefs and assumptions; a strategic thrust; involvement of line managers; a set of techniques to improve the relationship. John Storey (1989) expresses this as follows: In stereotyped form HRM appears capable of making good each of the main shortcomings of personnel management. Its performance and delivery are integrated into line management: the aim shifts from merely securing compliance to the more ambitious one of winning commitment (Storey 1989, p. 33). Hard and soft approaches are concerned with the business-oriented and human-oriented aspects within an organisational