Evolution_of_Hrm

EVOLUTION OF HRM 1. The Industrial Revolution Era The Industrial Revolution appeared almost simultaneously with the intellectual, scientific and political revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries. After the Industrial Revolution, the factory-system came into being. As a result, (i) it was necessary to start and stop work at the same time; (ii) establish rigorous working rules applicable to large numbers of people; (iii) an extensive hierarchy of officials appeared; (iv) the social distance between factory hand and owner was increasing widely; (v) most employees in the factories worked long hours at low pay under conditions of extremes in temperature, dust, noise, and other discomforts. Labour was usually considered a commodity to be bought and sold and the prevailing political philosophy of Laissez faire resulted in little action by governments to protect the lot of the workers (French,1974). This new industrial era brought about materialism, discipline, monotony, boredom, job displacement, impersonality, workinterdependence, and related behavioural phenomena for the labours (Perline, et al., 1969). 2. Trade Unionism Era It was inevitable that associations of wage earners would arise to protect themselves against some of the abuses of the Industrial Revolution and to improve their lot in life. Trade or labor unions spread from factory to factory, and shop to shop (French, 1974). Strikes were one consequence. The English Parliament passed a series of laws in 1799 and 1800 -known as the "Combination Laws", that declared trade unions to be illegal (Cohen, 1960). After the Commonwealth vs. Hunt decision, the right to organize and bargain collectively was gradually established (French, 1974). A number of Acts of the UK and USA during this time brought the union-management relations, individual employee's right and unions' rights and power. to their present position. 3. Social Reformer Era About 1799, Robert Owen, a successful entrepreneur and manager of Scotland, fervently preached the gospel that people were creatures of their environment and that their behaviour was a function of their treatment (French,1974). His concern for employees and attempts to relieve human misery resulted in his promotion of shorter working hours, safer working conditions and better housing for the parish apprentices in his employ. Along with humanitarian reforms in the factory, Owen instituted a procedure of visible ratings of the production of each employee as a check on "inferior conduct" (Podmore,1907, pp 90 - 91). 4. Scientific Management Era The famous name associated with this movement is that of F W Taylor. Around 1878, Taylor had developed what he called "the four great principles of management". In general, the scientific management movement emphasized the importance of management planning down to the smallest details in the operations of the factory (French,1974). But his opinions about group effort were quite negative and for this his efforts were strongly resisted by organizedlabour, and even the Congress of the USA. Among the contemporaries of Taylor who extended his concepts were the Gilbreths and Gantt. F Gilbreth formulated laws of efficient motion (Gilbreth,1911). L Gilbreth is credited with one of the early books relating the principles of scientific management to the field of psychology (Gilbreth,1914). H Gantt's two innovations were "task and bonus" wage system and "Gantt chart" (Business Week, 1964). 5. Era of Industrial Psychology Early industrial psychology seemed to focus on improvements in selling techniques, but researchers in industrial psychology were also interested in more effective matching of workers' abilities with job (Gilmer, 1961). In 1913 Hugo Munsterberg's book, Psychology anal Industrial Efficiency, described the analysis of jobs in terms of their mental and emotional requirements and in terms of the development of testing devices. In commenting on the problem of monotony, he stressed the importance of the individual worker's needs and motivations (Gilmer, 1961). In this era the wellknown developments are: (i) "Test l-A" fdr mental-alertness; (ii) statistical validity in the use of tests; (iii) developments in checking references; (iv) Army Alpha and Army Beta intelligence tests; (v) tests of aptitude, trade, interest and personality; etc. 6. Era of Human Relations Movement In 1923 the Western Electric Company started experiments at its Hawthorne Works in Chicago in an attempt to find out what the effects of illumination were on workers and their output. Prof. Mayo and his peers con- ducted the research continuing into the early 1930s. They concluded that productivity was a function of the extent to which the group became a team and cooperated wholeheartedly and spontaneously. (For detailed reports of these experiments, see Roethlisberger and Dickson, 1939; Whitehead, 1938; Pennock, 1930; Johnson, 1975). The human relations movement was mainly concerned with the informal, spontaneous behaviour of work groups and the sentiments, interactions, and attitudes of employees. The scientific management movement was mainly concerned with the organization as a techno-economic system while the human relations movement viewed the organization as a social system (French, 1974: 30-31). 7. Era of the Behavioural Sciences The behavioural sciences are essentially the social and biological sciences pertaining to the study of humanbehaviour. The term was coined about 1949 and grew out of a meeting of scientists who were considering whether a sufficient body of facts exists to justify developing an empirically tenable general theory of behaviour (Miller, 1955). Recent contributions from the behavioural sciences to the study of PM have come mainly from industrial psychology, social psychology, organizational psychology, and sociology and a great deal of relevant research cuts across these disciplines. 8. Personnel Specialist and Welfare Era With the increase in the size of an organization, only hire and fire of personnel functions had to be allotted to a full-time "manager". With further increases in the number of employees, a separate personnel executive had to be appointed to determine wage rates, develop job descriptions and job specifications and to look after the benefits and services provided for the employees. Later safety experts, physicians, behaviour researchers, labour relations specialists and others were appointed. For administrative and organizational effectiveness, these different functions were merged into a single position, viz., the "Personnel Manager and Welfare Officer". After that, organizational planning, manpower planning, manpower selection and other allied problems regarding the management of managers and high talent manpower assumed significance in the organization. High talent personnel emerged as the key human resources (Ordiarne, 1971). The emphasis then shifted to the "management of human resources" (HRM).