Human resource management

"Human resource management (HRM) developed initially from work in the United States of America in the 1960s and 1970s and since the mid 1980s has been an ever more visible feature of the academic literature, of consultancy services and of organisational terminology; particularly in the USA and Great Britain."

"The idea of human resource management has become topical and controversial. The term suggests that people in any organization are an asset to be upgraded and full utilized rather than merely a variable cost to be minimized. This in turn implies that the way in which people are managed is a matter of crucial strategic concern."

"Simon (1950, 1952-3, 1952) was a leading proponent for the creation of “organization theory”, which he imagined as including scientific management, industrial engineering, industrial psychology, the psychology of small groups, human-resources management, and strategy."

"This study examines two alternative views—universal and contingency—of the human resources (HR)-performance relationship in manufacturing settings. Results from a survey of 97 plants primarily support a contingency approach to human resource management (HRM). An HR system focused on human capital enhancement was directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance (i.e., employee productivity, machine efficiency, and customer alignment), but subsequent analysis revealed that this main effect was predominately the result of linking human-capital-enhancing HR systems with a quality manufacturing strategy. Other manufacturing strategies also moderated the HR-performance relationship."

"The stress on human resources as an organizational asset goes back at least to Drucker (1954). This was elaborated in the theory of human capital by Schultz (1963) who was concerned to describe the benefits of education as a production good enhancing the economic resources of society, and by others like Becker (1964) who argued for the benefits to economic growth of a well-trained workforce. While labour market segmentation theory developed in reaction (stressing institutional processes in labour market formation), human asset accounting in the 1970s applied the capital theory to quantifying investments in people by the organization (Flamholtz, 1974). This was embraced by some (for example, Likert, 1967) as a way of encouraging humane employment policies, less geared to the short-term (although others saw in it the rule of accountants)."

"The subject of human resource management (HRM) and its development has been much contested in the literature. Most of the relevant theories originated in the United States of America. There is in the literature no distinctly “European” approach to HRM and, indeed, our knowledge of comparative HRM practices in different European states is limited."