Human Resource Management in Business Context

The purpose of this reflective paper is to show my understanding along with what I have learned about HRM (human resources management) and the different way HRM impacts the success behind every business, along with the rules and regulations that go with it. Over the last five weeks I have learned quite a bit about HRM and will reflect on that throughout this paper. “Human resource management is the managing of human skills and talents to make sure they are used effectively and in alignment with an organizations goals.” (Youssef, 2012). I will be including the things I learned throughout the last five weeks in this

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Gómez-Mejía, L. R., Balkin, D. B., & Cardy, R. L. (2016). Managing human resources (7th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

It is hypothesized that cultural differences in behaviour will mean differences in HRM practices within different cultures but those within the same cultural cluster will be similar whereas those in different clusters will be dissimilar. Employees and managers from different cultures take decisions in different ways – the processes, behaviours and values are not the same. People have different value orientations as a result of individual psychology, life-stage and generation and assumptions about behaviour determined by cultures are linked to a variety of organisational behaviours.

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Armstrong, M. 2003, A Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, 9th Edition, London, Kogan Page

2. Leatherbarrow, C., Fletcher, J. & Currie, D. (2010) Introduction to Human Resource Management. 2nd Edition. London: CIPD

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To work in the Human Resource management field you must maintain and improve the company by planning, implementing, and evaluating employee relations and human resource policies, programs, and practices. It is a challenging and yet rewarding field to work in. However, just like every business field, people who work in the human resource department face many challenges when it comes to discrimination.

Guest (1987) and Storey (1992) in their definitions of soft and hard models of HRM view the key distinction as being whether the emphasis is placed on the human or the resource. Soft HRM is associated with the human relations movement, the utilization of individual talents, and McGregor's (1960) Theory Y perspective on individuals (developmental humanism). This has been equated with the concept of a 'high commitment work system' (Walton 1985b), 'which is aimed at eliciting a commitment so that behaviour is primarily self-regulated rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the individual and relations within the organization are based on high levels of trust' (Wood 1996: 41). Soft HRM is also associated with the goals of flexibility and adaptability (which themselves are problematic concepts, as we shall see in more detail later), and implies that communication plays a central role in management (Storey and Sisson 1993).