Essay On Human Management And Personnel Management

728 Words2 Pages

Both Human Resource Management and Personnel Management can be broadly described as the management of people or “people management”. This is because both functions fit the definition “all the management decisions and actions that directly affect or influence people as members of the organization rather than ‘job holders’”
To many people “HRM” is simply seen as a fancy or pretentious re-labelling of what used to be known as “personnel management”. However, to many managers and management theorists, it is vital to the success of organizations in the 21st century. There are actually many differences between HRM and PM.
The people management policies and practices which are now known as “HRM” began and evolved in the USA’s manufacturing industry during the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. A number of factors led to this new way of management thinking.
The main difference between HRM and PM is that personnel management tends to deal with employees, their payroll and employment laws. Meanwhile, HRM deals with the management of the work force as a whole and contributes to an organization’s success.
With personnel management being more “work force” centered, it means HRM concentrates more and focuses on the resources/resourcefulness of a business.
The functions of personnel management can be split into two different categories. The first is “management functions” and the second is “operative functions”.
Management functions include things such as planning, organisation, directing and controlling. While operative functions include procurement, development, compensation, integration and maintenance.
Personnel Management responsibilities also include the function of employment and development. PM is an extension to general management, concerned...

... middle of paper ...

...ffer on opinion about. PM believes in the importance of devising clear rules/mutuality, however HRM take the “can do” outlook; and have impatience with rules.
There are other strategic aspects which also differ between the two. For example, the speed of decisions. PM being slow and HRM is fast. One more important difference is the two side’s opinions on pay. Personnel management prefers pay to be decided by job evaluation and therefore fixed grades, while Human Resource Management work on performance related pay.
In conclusion, Personnel management can be seen to have a focus on the personnel and employees as individuals within a company, providing a monitoring and largely service based function. While on the other hand, Human Resource Management considers people/employees a strategic asset which can impact upon the bottom line and grow in value at the same time.

More about Essay On Human Management And Personnel Management

Open Document