Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
The History of Human Resource Management
Human resource management is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of
an organizations most valued assets - the people working there who individually and
collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms
"human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the
term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing
people in organizations. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. Human
resource management is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the
theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. (1)
Human resource management has it roots in the late and early 1900s. When workers jobs
became less labor intense and more working with machinary. The scientific management
movement began. This movement was started by Frederick Taylor when he wrote about it
a book titled The Principles of Scientific Management. The book stated, "The principal
object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer,
coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee."(2) Taylor believed that
management should use the techniques used by scientist to research and test work skills to
improve the efficiency of the workforce.
Also around the same time came the industrial welfare movement. This was usually a
voluntary effort by employers to improve the conditions in their factories. The effort also
extended into the employees life outside of the work place. The employer would try to
provide assistance to employees to purchase a home, medical care, or assistance for
education.
The human relations movement is the major influence of the modern human resource
management. The movement focused on how employees group behavior and how
employee feelings. This movement was influenced by the Hawthorne Studies and the
belief that employees worked better in a social system.
By the late 1800s, people problems were a very real concern in the workplace. For the
average blue-collar worker, most jobs were low-paying, monotonous and unsafe. Some
industries experienced difficulty recruiting and retaining employees because of the poor
working conditions workers were exposed to. As the means of production continued to
shift from farmlands and guilds to city factories, concerns grew about wages, safety, and
child labor and 12-hour workdays. Workers began to band together in unions to protect
their interests and improve living standards. Government stepped in to provide basic rights
and protections for workers. (3)
The growth of organized labor soon followed. The first union the Knights of Labor formed
