HRM-IR

Old and new values in HRM

From

Master-servant relationship to employeremployee relationship

From employees interest didnt count to individuals
interests count
From respect for position of authority to decline in
respect for authority
From conflict inevitable to labour management
cooperation
From management has right to manage to need to
manage by consent

Changes in human capital

Increase in strength of knowledge workers who

demand high trust and transparent climate based on

equity
Rapid
changes in technology resulting in
obsolescence/redundancy,
retraining
and
redeployment
Shortening product life cycles causing pressure to be
innovative
Loyalty is transferring from organization to
profession

Concept of HRM
The HR function has evolved over a period of time.

In 1930s and 1940s the function grew in significance.

But during that time HR function was more focused
on labour relations and staffing. Tata Iron and Steel
Company became one of the first organizations in
India to set up a personnel department in the year
1947.
The early 70s saw evolution of the term HRM for
personnel management.

Concept of HRM
The role of personnel department conventionally was to

screen resumes, interview the prospective employees and to

do paper work for routine events, deciding on promotions,
transfer, demotion, annual increments, retirements, etc.
The change in terminology also suggested change in the
broader objectives of the function.
The emergence of competitive business environment led
management to bring a new focus on how human resources
should be managed. This led to development of HR into a
more strategic role.
The early 8Os saw the emergence and increase of the usage of
the term strategic HRM.

HRD in India
In 1975 Larsen & Toubro, a prominent engineering

company in India had appointed two consultants from

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad to study the
Performance
Appraisal
System
and
make
recommendations in order to improve it.
The two consultants (Pareek and Rao, 1975) studied the
system through interviews, etc. and suggested a new
system.
Pareek
and
Rao
recommended
that
..Performance Appraisal, Potential Appraisal, Feedback
and Counselling, Career Development and Career
Planning and Training and Development get distinct
attention as unique parts of an integrated system which
we call the Human Resource Development System.

HRD in India
This system was proposed as a separate system with

strong linkages to personnel (Human Resources)

system. Pareek and Rao (1977) in their second report
on the Human Resources System in L&T
recommended that the personnel function be viewed
as Human Resources Function (HRF)and suggested
a trifurcated function: personnel administration,
HRD and worker affairs.
As such, HRD function was introduced in India.

HRD in India
Among the India authors T. V. Rao worked extensively on HRD.

He defines HRD in the organizational context as, a process by

which the employees of an organization are helped in a
continuous, planned way to:
Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various
functions associated with their present or expected future roles;
Develop their general capabilities as individual and discover
and exploit their own inner potentials for their own and/or
organizational development purposes;
Development of an organizational culture in which superiorsubordinate relationship, team work and collaboration among
subunits are strong and contribute to the professional wellbeing, motivation and pride of employee.

HRD and HR
Rao (2003) discussed about HRD and HR. According to him,

the HR function is all encompassing, and includes HRD and

more.
It is more proactive and change-oriented and needs
competencies of a different nature from what traditional
personnel function required.
The traditional personnel function can be understood as more
of a maintenance function. The modern HR function has
HRD at its core.
HRD is its soul, as Udai Pareek once put it in a talk at the
National Institute of Personnel Management convention in
1978 on Personnel Management in Search of a Soul.

HRD and HR
The HR function, as it has evolved in India, consists of

three main subfunctions: HRD; Industrial Relations and

Worker Affairs; and Human Resource Administration. All
three can be combined to form human resource
management (HRM).
However, due to restricted connotation of the term
management, it needs to be called HR function rather
than HRM
At the same time, all aspects of the HR function are not
covered in using the term HR.
All areas dealing with industrial relations, labour laws,
legal aspects, administration are ignored or underplayed
in the use of term HR

HRD Movement and HRD-IR Linkage

HRD movement being of fairly recent origin faces the

problem of developing a shared philosophy concerning

HRD not only in decentralized and widely spread out
organizations but also in smaller ones;
There are complaints that training is for workers and HRD
is for managers;
Linkage between HRD and IR needs to be appreciated;
HRD strategies should not be construed as management
strategies to wean employees away from their unions;
Meaningful HRD interventions are directed at dealing with
problems of employee alienation, dissonance with intrinsic
and extrinsic aspects of work, and quality of work life; it
helps improve employee relations.

HRD Movement and HRD-IR Linkage

Assuming HRD is part of a business plan, it should

ultimately result in a more effective utilization of

human resources.it is therefore preferable for
organizations to establish HR policies that provide
for job security, multiskilling and job enrichment to
give meaning to jobs and to effectively harness the
true potential of human resources
In sphere of IR there is overdose of legislation, with
collective bargaining left to suffer amidst a less than
congenial environment;

HRD Movement and HRD-IR Linkage

Employee relations (which is relationship between

employee and employer) comes within the purview

of personnel/HR functions; union management
relations are handled by IR specialists within
personnel/HR function
Insensitivity of certain managements may have
driven employees into protective fold of unions;
Employee relations took a back seat and IR with
legalistic orientation have come to engage attention
of the management

HRD Movement and HRD-IR Linkage

Instead of organizations and their managements

showing concern for the safety, welfare, health,

remuneration, benefits, and quality of working life of
employees, unions have begun to articulate them,
organizing overt and covert conflicts before, during
and after negotiations
Unions are seen to provide and protect while
managements are perceived to exploit and withhold;
Rationale for HRD arises out of the need to
overcome these perceptual blocks;

HRM-IR-HRD interface
HRM-IR-HRD interface integration should be such that

it should result in HRM focusing on the developmental

roles of traditional HR function, moving away from
principle of direction and control to a system based on
philosophy of consent and commitment;
Good IR should provide network of rules and relations
in a spirit of joint partnership and joint decision-making
and HRD should harmonize concerns of both
management and union for the well-being of the
employees, which is contingent upon well-being of the
enterprise;

HRM-IR-HRD interface
There is a predominant view that modern HRM policies focus
on the employee as an individual, reduce the emphasis on
collectivism, and seek to marginalize the role of trade unions;
this view gains strength when managements
communicate directly with employees
Substitute
and
supplant
rather
than
supplement
representative forms of employee participation/involvement
through direct forms of employee participation/involvement
such as suggestion schemes, quality control circles, etc.
Make maintenance of union-free environment a key result
area for the Director HR
Refuse to deal with trade unions

Handling HRM and IR

Management can develop good IR interface with

HRM in following ways:

Developing sensitivity to human needs and human
problems at work and beyond work
Evolving a value system based on trust and fairness
Institutionalizing openness in superior-subordinate
relationships
Dealing with employee grievances promptly