Strategic management and other aspects of HRM Research Paper

Strategic management and other aspects of HRM - Research Paper Example Traditionally, personnel management took the functions of HRM. When functions and responsibilities multiplied to the fore due to various organizational and environmental factors, changes have to be incorporated in the organization. Human Resource Management has taken over the functions of Personnel Management. These functions range from recruitment to training to managing the personnel and their functions in an organization. In the UK, HRM emerged in the late 1980s, giving way to personnel management, during the time when stress on the integration of HR policies was needed. The people are the organization’s greatest asset, and human resource is to manage or take care of this special asset. If the people are working well in the organization, it means HRM is doing its job of looking over the employees. Human resource management is defined as â€Å"a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives† (Armstrong, 2006, p. 3). But Storey (1989) believes that HRM can be regarded as a ‘set of interrelated policies with an ideological and philosophical underpinning’. Storey suggests these following aspects that constitute the meaningful version of HRM: it is ‘a particular constellation of beliefs and assumptions; a strategic thrust informing decisions about people management; the central involvement of line managers; and a reliance on a set of ‘levers’ to shape the employment relationship’.