Human Resources - Critically appraise the historical development and future direction of Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry Personnel Management & Human Resource Management

Links of Corporate Strategy and Human Resource Management -- An Analysis

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Organizational Behavior

Trends in Hospitality Management

Human Resourcing strategies in Hospitality Industry

Personnel Management & Human Resource Management

The practices of people management have received additional importance due to the present emphasis on the renewed interest in human resources. Traditionally, there has always been a dividing line between operational managers and personnel managers who are now called human resource managers. In the United States the function of personnel management has been a recognized function since the National Cash Register Company had opened their personnel office in the 1890s. The American personnel managers have always closely identified themselves with the objectives of the organization and this may be considered as a unitary tradition. With this tradition, it was natural that Human Resources Management emerged in a very smooth manner. Some of us had however felt that personnel management also insisted on being called as human resources management by some companies was not really a relevant management function and served only to throttle the natural flair, initiative and creativity of the people. (The Independent, 12 May, 1994).

It was felt by some that the personnel management staff should give up their dual-purpose roles and assume full management positions. There were others who were of the opinion that if the importance of human resources is to be considered price worthy, and if it was really of fundamental importance to the success of business, then it ought to be left to the operational personnel managers. The major decisions of human resources then will ultimately have to be carried through by the top managers, while it was the line management who ought to have the effects of those decisions made. These types of considerations place human resource management on an important strategic position in business rather than a simple operational matter, and the decisions of personnel managers as providing matters of great interest to senior executives. In many large organizations, the role of the personnel managers have been reviewed the low position of the personnel managers has been reappraised. It is now felt that the people are an organizations greatest resource, and hence the function of the personnel manager cannot be regarded as just being peripheral to the interest of the organization, if it controls the people of the organization. This has led to the adoption of human resources management in some form by most organizations. (Torrington & Hall, 1995)

Links of Corporate Strategy and Human Resource Management -- An Analysis

Modern strategic human resources management requires that there is a successful increased reaction between human resources management and business strategy for any successful organization. When any successful executive works in conjunction with a talented human resources manager they together can provide the basis for a very successful business operation. Ultimately, it is the design, culture and people combined with a certain set of accepted values that together gives the sustainable competitive advantage for the organization, which can be built by their co-operative efforts. This method of gaining competitive advantage, according to both the practitioners as also the published literature, is the strategic deployment and management of the employed personnel. Some experts even say that the human resources of a firm are the basis of the competitive advantage of any business organization. The experts are of the opinion that the human resources are the most important assets of any human organization. (Bratton & Gold 1999)

Thus the human resources of any organization are viewed to be very important, but, at the same time, it is also felt that these should be in perfect fit with the management and it has to be possible for the management to utilize them for the strategic plans of the management. Thus, though the importance of human resources management is recognized overall, the practice of such management has been often seen to be very difficult in practice and this has been achieved only to a limited extent. (Rowland & summers, 1981; Lorange & Murphy, 1984; Nkomo, 1984; Golden & Ramanujam, 1985; Mills, 1985; Buller & Napier, 1993). Success seems to have been achieved only in very few instances according to the published literature in these issues. In cases where the final success has yet to be achieved,...

Thus literature on the 'how', or practical implementation of human resources management seems to be much more difficult to obtain than the literature based on the description of human resources management. (Truss & Gratton, 1994). We can attempt to study business strategy and human resources management and distinguish the three available aspects of their integration. These three aspects are useful in classifying the literature available and may be seen in most companies and other business organizations.
The relational aspects between business strategy and the management of human resources constitute the first aspect of this integration. This aspect also provides the definition of the position of personnel and human resource management as compared to the other important internal factors like economic, technological and financial of the organization. The issue of importance provides the relative aspects of the different functions in the management of business enterprises, and their practitioners. Another issue concerns with both the strategy and practice of human resource management. This also tries to understand the business results of the practice of one method as compared to another for the management of any human resource. Given the existence of a certain situation X, it becomes necessary to decide as to the approach, which is best suited for another situation Y. In certain types of situations this may be treated as a business strategy for the deployment of X, and a human resource management situation for Y. (Beardwell & Holden, 2001)

This is however a rough and ready method and this may not be the correct view for the entire problem, and the real solution may be to treat the entire problem from the reverse angle, or may be a combination of many other factors. The final aspect refers to the different ways in which business strategy and human resources management may be integrated. The importance of this aspect is often not realized or accepted, and probably that is the reason why it has not received adequate attention so far. There is however a very many good reason why this aspect should receive far more attention than it has received. The study of this aspect will help the practicing managers to understand the ways by which the two apparently different business strategy and human resources management can be integrated to form a cohesive whole. A good study in this will also possibly tell us the ways by which this integration can take place, and may be, how this can take place, which may also be equally important from a business point-of-view. Once proper attention is given to these processes, it may provide us the clues as to how these processes may be optimized.

The study of the relational aspects of the integration between business strategy and the management of human resources employed in the business depends on the internal relationships between the influencing factors for both, as also the participants. Speaking more simply, to understand this process, the relative importance of human resources management in business strategy has to be studied. We know that both these areas of business are policy areas and have to given distinct shapes in certain situations, but the relationship between them need not be related to this aspect. Both the practicing managers, as also the expert writers on management seem to have given a lot of importance to this. One of the results of this discussion is that in many organizations, the senior-most human resources person is designated as a member of the board of directors or a member of the topmost management team. In many countries like Netherlands, and such, the human resources function or department has also been professionalized as a result of this aspect.

Many people feel, and a lot of others assume that that when the senior personnel manager is invited to take part in the discussions of the top management, the importance of the function is being realized. It is also felt that this is probably the best way to guarantee the strategic importance of the department. This has given rise to the theories of the characterization of the personnel department within an organization in terms of the relative weight that it is given in terms of the business strategy of the organization. The study of this relational perspective was first evaluated in the work of Golden and Ramanujam (1985). They had separated between the administrative linkages, one-way linkages, two-way linkages, and integrative linkages between the different organizations for business strategy and human resources management. They ultimately found that there was an integrative link between the two in only one of the…