Ancient
People Management
The
history of HRM can be traced back to early civilizations and even beyond. As
the human beings evolved and started to live in small groups or tribes since
then there started to emerge a division of labor for example who will be the
tribal leader (Selection process), who will hunt and cook the food
(division of labor) and the trainer who will train younger tribal members about
how to hunt, passing on important social skills and understanding the
environment around (training and development). Similarly as human societies
further developed(For example Indus civilization and Egyptian and Roman
societies) it resulted in development of different occupations e.g. cobbler,
farmer, traders and so on which further divide the work in society and
increased specialization. The concept of slavery also started at this time.
Labor management at this time related to the issues of pay and
health and safety of slaves and employees.
Modern People Management
Modern
people management started to emerge during 17th and 18thcentury.
Modern people management can be divided in to three stages including Industrial
revolution, Human Relations movement and people as a competitive
advantage.
Time Frame
|
Main Era/ Philosophy towards People Management
|
Human Resource Role/ Person who Manage labor or People
|
Description
|
| B.C. to 17th Century | Ancient People Management | Tribe Leader or elders, societal leaders and employer or master | Early practices of HRM such as selection of tribal leader, division of work in families and society, ensuring health and safety of workers and slaves |
| 18th and 19th Century | Industrial Revolution | Labor Officer |
Mostly dealing with Employees benefits and welfare issues such as sick pay and small loans |
| 1914-1939 | Scientific Management and Rise of Trade Unions | Labor Manager |
Dealing with both Trade unions and employees benefits. Negotiating with trade union on management behalf |
| 1940-1980 | Human Relation Movement and Rapid Industrialization | Personnel Managers | Performing several complex functions such as compliance with labor laws, health and safety issues, employees benefits, trade unions management and employee relations |
| 1980s - Onward | People as a source of competitive advantage- Rise of Services Economy and Knowledge workers | Human Resource Manager | The strategic nature of labor management with wide variety of function including effective relations with labor, benefits and welfare, legislative issues and employees development |
Industrial
Revolution:
Before
Industrial revolution most of the people/ craftsman used to work for themselves
at small scale and usually in their own houses. With the development of Science
which brought coal powered steam engine, railway system and other better
machineries and tools lead to the Industrial revolution. This was the 18th
century when Europe started to move from Agriculture age to Industrial age
which resulted in population migration from villages to nearby cities and towns
where employment was available in these factories. In these factories a special
role started to emerge named ‘Welfare Officer’. Their main job was to look
after employees, visit their houses in case they get injured or fell sick and
provision of some benefits including low interest loans and sick pay.
At
the same time this revolution leads to huge differences or distances in
societies because of widening gap between the employer and employees. Employer
becomes richer and richer while employees started to realize the employer’s
exploitation and their rights. To overcome their weaknesses employees started
to join together and thus the concept of trade union/labor union emerged. The
main objective of trade union/labor union was to protect the interest of labor
and collectively negotiate with the management about issues such as higher pay,
better working conditions and benefits such as holiday pays, overtime pay etc.
With the rise of trade unions management also responded to this situation by
replacing the old ‘Welfare Officer’ with a new role in factories named
‘Labor Managers’. Their main job was to manage both the labor welfare
activities as well as keeping the trade union under the management control to
maintain smooth production.
Human
Relations Movement:
The
Hawthorne Experiments carried on in Western Electric Company in Illinois which
continued from 1924 to 1931 resulted in Human relations movement. The essence
of Human relations movement was that human beings are human beings not just
merely the workers, so if treated with respect and as a human along with good
manager and employee relations it can lead to higher motivation and
productivity. A new role started to emerge after the Second World War
1945-1980 which was called ‘Personnel Manager’. They were merely replacing old
Labor managers and Welfare officer but their duties did include the elements of
old roles. Overall their job was to manage employee’s benefits and welfare,
maintaining good employer and employee relations by managing trade union/labor
unions effectively and managing all other administrative duties related to the
management of people such as health and safety, protecting management
interests, pay and ensuring compliance with legislation
People
as a Source of Competitive Advantage:
After 1980’s term ‘Personnel Manager’ started to
be replaced by a new term’ Human Resource Managers’. Basically after
1980’s most advanced economies such as America, Britons and other European countries
shifted from Industrial era to Information era. With this shift most of their
workers who used to be Industrial workers started to become knowledge workers
or service workers. Now Industries started to move to other less developed
countries where labor and raw material was cheaper and easily available. At
this time most service sector organization such as blue chip companies,
consumer electronics companies started to recognize that competitive advantage
can be achieved by having a highly skilled and motivated employees. It is based
on the assumption that if you have employees who have better knowledge, skills,
abilities and attitudes and are highly motivated, then such organization can
outperform their competitors or those organizations that have less developed
staff. So now the role of HRM started to become strategic which means HR
practices and policies are aimed to achieve competitive advantage for the
organization by effectively managing its human resource.
