Origin of Human Resources and How the Human Resource Drives the Societal Value - Coursework Example

Human Resource and Society Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction In the last 20 years or so, businesses in Australia have managed to organize and manage human resource skills in a more professional way than before. Research has shown that organizations which apply the human resource approach in its operations perform better than other organizations. Human resource aims at managing people as well as planning for the tasks. The main aim of human resource management is to improve the performance of the organization through increased productivity per employee (Guest 2002). However it has not been easy to implement the human resource management in many organizations because of the barriers involved. This paper will discuss about the origin of human resources and how the human resource drives the societal value. Also barriers to full implementation of the human resource will be discussed in this paper. Finally, the conclusion will be summarized to give a clear influence of the human resource function to the businesses and the society as a whole. History of Human resource management Personnel management emerged in Australia in the years of the 1950s and 1960s (Boxall & Purcell 2008). By that time personnel management had been established and some organizations were practicing it but it had not been incorporated into the structures of the organizations at that time. Maxine Bucklow the researcher after carefully studying how the function was being handled, she decided to explain more about the assumptions that faced the human resource. She thought that human resource had broader functions in industrial relations than it was thought. She also argued and thought that with the change in technology, organizations were likely to change their structure to fit the changing technology and the employees' roles changed as a result of the modern technology. She suggested that in order to achieve better management of functions and people, human resource management was the key to success (Grant & Robin, 2003). These claims led to many developments in the years of 1980s when the human resource function was seen as a valuable function in recruitment. At first human resource function was seen as the corporate decision making process but since 1980s it was regarded as a strategy (Boxall & Purcell 2008). At this time human resource emphasized on the importance of integrating the strategies of hiring employees and the strategies which are used by the organization towards achieving its goals and objectives. There was similar research which was conducted in various places in the world especially in the US which showed the same aspect of managing people well. Human resource management became widespread in the world throughout 1980s. In Australia human resource managers are trying to agree that human resource should focus on the performance measurement of the organizations. In Australia, there has been privatization of public corporations so as to be competitive like the private sector. In this regard, human resource management plays a great role in the performance. There is adoption of people management in the public sector so that they will also improve their competitiveness. This transformation has promoted the function of human resource management function in Australia (Paul, 2011). How HRM drives society values The society can value the organization positively if the organization is involved in the corporate social responsibilities of the society (Anderson et al 2007). For instance, the society will value the organization better when it sponsors education programs in the society. This will promote educational standards among the society members thus improve the image of the organization. This practice will enable the society members to regard operations of the organization with respect thus they become customers of the organization’s products which improves its performance in the market thus will have a competitive advantage. The human resource management of an organization can also transform a society into applying modern technology in the community based operations (Anderson et al 2007). For instance, the organization can provide free computer programs for some community students which improve their skills and interact with the global world using the internet. This will enable the society to view the world as one big society because they will be able to communicate with the world and this will change their value that the other world outside their society and make it different. Technology therefore will enable them to work together as one society thereby eliminating vices (Grant & Robin, 2003). Effective human resource management also enables the society to develop a positive attitude towards education and equal opportunities for all (Anderson et al 2007). For instance, if the CEO of the organization is a woman and the society did not value at any time that a woman can be a senior manager, the attitude changes that anybody can be educated and employed at any job position. Therefore, the human resource management can act as a role model for the society to emulate. The human resource management can also develop an attitude of positive relationship between the society and the business. This is when the human resource ensures there is a good partnership between the society at large and the organization. Good relationship helps to shape the values of the society through exchange programs which benefit the community for example how to preserve the environment (Paul, 2011). Finally, the society can develop a positive attitude towards the organization when they understand how the organization deals with the environmental matters. The human resource management of the organization should explain the measures taken to preserve the environment so that the society will develop a positive attitude towards the organization. Without clear strategies on how to preserve the environment the society will develop a negative attitude towards the organization and hence there will be poor performance because the society may not be among the customers of their products. On the other hand, human resource tells us a lot about the society. First, human resource management ensures that there is job security (Kane & Grant 1999). Human resource management promotes job security to employees through permanent employees' systems and discourages casual employees. This employment scheme ensures that the employees are certain about their future jobs in the organization hence they can concentrate for the better performance of the organization. Human resource management also focuses on the motivation of employees or the society. The human resource section is important in setting strategies for motivating the employees for example through the offering of rewards to employees just to appreciate their efforts. Motivated society improves its production which benefits the whole organization through increased sales (Carol, 2009). Human resource management on the other hand promotes job satisfaction among the employees (Kane & Grant 1999). This department ensures that when allocating job duties it understands well the capabilities of each employee. If the employee is allocated to work in the field where he or she does not specialize, the chances are that the employee will not be satisfied. Job dissatisfaction lowers the morale of the employees and therefore their performance will be low leading to poor performance of the whole organization. Furthermore, the human resource department promotes skills and knowledge among the employees. It identifies and organizes training programs for the employees so that they can refresh their skills. The employees are motivated when they are given opportunity to advance their skills. Therefore, the skills will be in turn applied in the organization's operations to increase the productivity and improve the image of the organization to the public. In addition, human resource management aims at attracting and recruiting expert knowledge in the organization. A strategy for hiring qualified employees is designed and will help the organization to recruit the employees with the required skills for the appropriate sections in the organization. Qualified and experienced employees improve the productivity of the organization by applying the experience and maximize the output. However, there are those who argue that there is no intersection between the society and the business. They argue that in order succeed in business there must be less concern of the corporate social responsibility (Hartman & Patrickson 2000). Corporate social responsibility increases the expenses of the business which means that the profits will be cut to take care of the society services. They further argue that business and the society are two different entities. Therefore, human resource management should not be so much concerned about the society at large but concentrate on the business performance. In addition, they argue that the society is considered as the external environment for the business (Hartman & Patrickson 2000). Importance of Human resource management First, human resource management improves the performance of an organization through the motivation of employees (Addison 2005). When there is effective management of human resource employees feel appreciated and recognized thus they increase their productivity for the organization. This is achieved because human resource management aligns the corporate goals with human resource practices. Secondly, human resource management improves the image of the organization to the public. The society can view the organization with a positive image when the organization manages its workforce effectively in terms of control of the operations and community development programs. This changes the attitude of the society towards the organization as they will feel that the organization is one of their own. In Australia, the development of the human resource practice has led to decrease in unions in workplaces (Addison 2005). On the increase there are the non union workplaces in Australia. Initially the unions were empowered to seek commitment of the employees as well as fighting for their grievances but with introduction of human resource these unions are diminishing. This is simply because the human resource takes care of all the employees’ welfare and thus there is no need of unions and this improves the relationships in the organization which in turn leads to high productivity of the organization. Finally, human resource management improves the satisfaction of its stakeholders. When the employees of the organization are handled professionally, they will improve their services to stakeholders for example the customers and suppliers. The employees will offer quality services which meet the demands of the stakeholders thus improving the sales because the stakeholders will derive the satisfaction they need from the organization. Barriers to effective human resource application The first limitation of implementing Human resource especially in Australia is the lack of good communication network (Kane & Grant 1999). The human resource managers and their roles are not well communicated which has led to lack of trustworthiness and ethics which has developed a negative image in the stakeholders hence their roles are not fully valued. Resistance also hinders the successful implementation of the human resource functions (Kane & Grant 1999). This function is regarded to be expensive and it takes time to generate results. In this regard, the top management may oppose some functions of the Human resource management because they may not be clear on the importance of human resource management in the organization and therefore they regard it as one of the stakeholders. There is a lack of adequate skills and knowledge especially in Australia which makes it hard to adopt and implement the human resource management policy. Lack of skills leads to strategies to implement the human resource function and therefore it may not succeed until the human resource managers have undergone adequate training. Conclusion Human resource management developed in early 1980s and has made tremendous effects in the way organizations are managed. It has helped organizations to manage their effectively as well as motivating its employees to increase the performance of the organization. In this regard human resource management provides job security to the society, motivation, job satisfaction and positive attitude towards the job because this function trains its employees towards achieving necessary skills in their operations. Human resource management also changes the way the society values the organization. They develop a positive value if the organization observes the corporate social responsibility but if not the society develops negative attitude. However there are barriers to successful implementation of the function like lack of adequate skills and commitment from top management. References Addison, J. (2005). The determinants of firm performance: Unions, works councils, and employee involvement/high-performance work practices. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 52(3), pp. 406−450. Andersen, K. Cooper, B. & Zhu C. (2007). The effect of SHRM practices on perceived firm financial performance: Some initial evidence from Australia. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 45(2), pp. 79-168. Boxall, P. & Purcell, J. (2008). Strategy and Human Resource Management. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Carol, G. (2009). Union impact on the effective adoption of High performance work practices, Human Resource Management Review, 19(1), 39-50. Guest, D. (2002). Human resource management, corporate performance and employee Wellbeing: Building the worker into HRM. Journal of Industrial Relations, 44(3), pp. 335–580. Grant, M. & Robin, K. (2003). The state of HRM in Australia: Progress and Prospects, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 41(2), p. 133-147. Hartmann, L & Patrickson, M. (2000). Externalizing the workforce: Australian trends And issues for HRM. International Journal of Manpower, 21(1), pp. 7–20. Kane, B.C & Grant, D. (1999). Barriers to effective HRM. International Journal of Manpower, 28(8), pp. 494–515. Paul, D. (2011). The strategic HR role: Do Australian HR professionals have thee required skills? Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 49(1), p. 55-70. Read More