The difference between Human Resource Management and Personnel

Management 1.1 Human resource Management is a needed function on all the

organisations because is the process of hiring and selection of people for the
right job by training the candidates and increasing their skills and performance
providing appropriate benefits ,inspiring, keeping the safety of the workers by
obeying with labour laws . Personnel Management is dedicated to discipline the
employees, is taking care of their salaries, training, motivating the employees to
perform well, solving arguments between workers and communicating with the
employees at all levels.(Business Dictionary 2014). The difference between
Human Resource and Personnel Management is that the Personnel Management
is that the Personnel Management is concentrating more on the training of the
employees; give them the wages, explaining them the rules of the company and
the interests of the employers ,employees processes, job description, checking,
writing contracts and explain the rules, while the Human Resource Management
is dedicated to the
values,objectives,aims,culture,plans,customers,teams,performance of the
employees,motivation,rewards and increased the profit of the business.(IQPC
2011) KFC preparation and improvement of the employees is concentrating more
on efficacious management and to build strong relationships with the customer.
By serving the customer as fast as possible with a large smile on the face the
clients have nothing to complain and will come often to visit the restaurant. This
can be one of many important duties of a Human resources management or
Personnel management the method that can satisfy the customer needs and to
respect the people time. 1.2& 1.3 The role, responsibilities and duties of the
Human Resource Management and Line Managers The Human Resource
practitioners they have a vital role in the organisation because they focusing on
rules and coordination. The Human Resources Management need to have the
capability and knowledge to think out of the box, to engage employees to
improve and perform well, to recruit professional and well trained people for all
the vacant positions and to have the right wages, with other words the Human
Resource Manager must hire the right staff with the right abilities for the right
job. His other responsibilities are to plan, improve the success of the company,
orientation as well is one of his activities because must help the new staff to
adjust to the new job and make sure that the workers know their working
hours,wages,benefits and the rules and expectations of the organisation.
Planning of the career also is part of the Human Resources Job because must
know the potential that his employees have to grow and advance in their
careers. Compensation is a task that the Human Resources Manager have to
control because in this way knows how many of his employees they perform well
and the employees that can do well certain jobs are paid better that other
workers. Benefits also are a form of being paid well because of their good
performance. The labour relations are a method to interact with the employees
which are characterized by trade unions. Trade unions is the voice of a group of
employees which are together when they have to take decisions about salaries,
compensations, working hours or working conditions and other methods or
characteristics of working.Recoord keeping is the duty that involves recording

,conserving ,and repossessing employees similar informations for difference

motivations.(Human Resources Management Functions ) In 2010 KFC
concentrated again on developing the business and making the employees feel
valuable for the company putting exceptional efforts on developing that method
and is accomplished by the business reward package. This programm was design
to give bonuses to employees but the performance was the best way to show
that they can truly can received by selling more items and by educated with all
the customers. Anyway constructing employees capability and knowledge at
KFC is a very important plan. (KFC Human resources management to meet
emerging business needs 2005-2014) 1.4 Lawful and regulatory request
The regulations and the legal regulations that must be respected by the Human
Resource Management are: = to give equal opportunities to the employees to
work no matter the culture, gender,ethnie,color of the skin, race or sex
,disabilities or age.(Civil Rights Act 1964) =prohibits discrimination (Civil Rights
Act 1991)
=forbids diverse wage for based on sex for identical work (Civil Rights Act 1963)
=discrimination of pregnancy (Civil Act Rights 1978)
=sexual harassments prohibited (Civil Rights Act 1980)
(HR Management Laws and Regulations2013)
At KFC the staff is always needed being very busy as Mc Donalds so the
management need to hire enough people in each team or group to have a
working time easy and without stress ,so the Human resource management have
to know what kind of people to hire no matter their culture are ,or
religion,ethnie,age or colour. No discrimination should appear in any of the
company. Because employees are working in teams at KFC their conduct must by
respectful with other colleagues and disputes between the staff must disappear
immediately.

Task1. Distinguish between personnel management and human resource

management and discuss the historical development and changing context in
which they operate. Personnel Management
PM is basically an administrative record functioning at operational level. PM
attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment while at the same
time efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments and the
activities which result ultimately in achieving organizational success. Human
Resource Management
HRM is concerned with carrying out the same functional activities conventionally
performed by the personnel function such as HR Planning, Job analysis,
recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management,
employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development but
it performs these functions in a qualitatively distinct way as compared with

personnel management. The concept and name of human resource management

has been changed many times throughout the history. The changes were mostly
because to the change in social and economic activities throughout the history.
Human resource management came to birth when industrial revolution took
place in the year 1833 then the industrialist incepted to increase their production
and they raised the burden of work on the employees by having 60 hours a
week. The workers became fed up of this circumstance and they took decision
among themselves to find out the solution for this problem. After this workers
were losing interest in their work and they divided in different groups and all this
caused less production. The industrialists came to know this, they straggle to
satisfy the workers but however the workers were not happy with that and
formed their Trade Union. Now the industrialists gave full authority to one
manager. In spite of this the problems remained constant because the manager
was not able to handle their problems then the workers went to strike for their
rights. This led to the formation of personnel management. Personal
management was working only when clashes arise. PM was dealing on
bargaining, so this system also failed to motivate the employees, in addition PM
was not able to take full control of it. Human Resource Management gets more
into practice as people are acknowledging from HRD and HR practices and these
departments are fulfilling all the requirements of the employees, are managing
all human resource and are giving full rights to everyone. Now in all successful
organizations there are HRM departments. The significant role of HRM is reflected
in the transformation of the personnel management purpose from one of
concentrating on employee welfare to one of managing people in a way which
matches organizational and individual goals and providing employees with
intrinsic and extrinsic reward. Therefore today Human Resource Management is
historically known as personal management which deals with official system for
the management of the people within an organization. There are different Stages
of shifting from Personnel Management to HRM. First stage: - HRM earlier react in
an even way to problems as they arise. Effective HRM seeks to connection HRM
issues to the largely strategy of the organization with the most effective HRM
policies and practices included into such corporate policies and strategies to
strengthen or transform an organization's culture. Integration is required in two
senses (1) integrating HRM issues in an organization's strategic planning (2)
securing the acceptance and addition of a HRM view in the decisions of line
managers. The HRM policy in worth of the various functions for example training
and recruitment etc should be internally reliable. Second stage:- structure
powerful cultures is a way of promoting demanding organizational goals in that a
strong culture is intended at uniting employees through a shared set of
managerially authorized values such as excellence service and innovation etc.
However there can be anxious between a strong organizational culture and the
need to change situations and to be elastic particularly in the highly competitive
and fast changing environment in which employers have to work on daily basis.
Speedy change demanded by the market is sometimes tough in an organization
with a strong culture. Third stage: The mindset that people are a changeable
cost is in effectual HRM which is replaced by the view that people are a resource
and that as community capital it can be developed and can add to competitive

advantage. Mostly it is accepted that competitive advantage is gained through

well educated and trained motivated and dedicated employees at all levels. This
recognition is now almost considered worldwide and important of management
training and growth are the middle pillars of HRM. Fourth stage: The view that
the interests of employees and management or shareholders are different and
confliction though considerably true in the past as organization which practices
effective human resource management seeks to classify and promote a
commonality of interests. important examples are training which enhances
employment security and high earning ability for employees while at the same
time rising the employee's value to the enterprise goals of healthier productivity
and performance pay systems which increase earnings without important labor
cost increases and which at the same time endorse higher performance levels
goal setting through two way communication which establishes joined goals and
objectives and which provides basic rewards to the employee through a
participatory process. Fifth stage: Top to down communication tied with
restricted information flow to keep power within the control of management give
a way for sharing of information and knowledge. This transform facilitates the
creation of faith and commitment and makes knowledge more fruitful.. In
enterprises that tend to have company missions and where there are
fundamental values that shape their corporate culture HRM becomes a part of
the strategy to attain their objectives. In some types of enterprises such as one
in which permanent technological change takes place the goal of successfully
managing change at short intervals often requires employee collaboration
through emphasis on communication and involvement.
Task2. Assess the role, tasks and activities of the human resource practitioner.
Human resource management plays a vital role in the success of every
organization. Human resource management is concerned with the development
and implementation of human resource strategies which are integrated with
corporate strategies to ensure that the culture values structure of the
organization quality motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully
for the achievement of organizational goals. In big organizations it plays a very
important and positive role in its success however it is difficult to deal with all the
activities. HRM makes the quality of work life desirable in the organization. Roles
and Tasks of HR Manager
HR manager plays an important role in developing and maintaining polices. HR
manager should motivate employees to make them fruitful for the organization.
HR manager should conduct recruitment process effectively and efficiently, so
that the skillful people could hire for the organization. HR manger is responsible
for increasing the skills of the employees to make their performance better. HR
manager should make the standards of performance so that the employees
performance can be judged. HR is responsible to make a good environment in
which the employees can work effectively and efficiently. HR manager should
keep aware the employees about new policies of the organization and guide
them. HR manager should develop a leading edge for the effective management
of the people to maintain competitive advantage. HR manager should

recommend the strategic direction for employees and ensure its implementation.
HR manager should co-ordinate the design, implementation and administration
of human resource policies and activities to ensure the availability and effective
utilization of human resources for meeting the company's objective HR managers
are very important for any organization because they makes polices, develop
strategies directing and coordinating human resource management. The most
important responsibility of HR manager is interviewing and recruiting candidates.
HR manager have to make good relationship with different departments like
marketing, operation and finance and make himself aware of new updates to
prevent miscommunication.
Task3. Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line managers in human resource
practices. Line manager plays an important role in the success of HR manager.
Line manager should deliver the task and responsibilities on time to the senior
management. Keep informing the management about the progress in the
organization. Line manager should defend the company strategy or management
strategy when talking to the work group. Clear appropriate picture to the work
group to keep them informed of the rules and policies and have to look out the
ways to become more efficient. Line manager should set tasks and standards for
the employees. Line manager should also have to provide training and
development to the employees when needed. Line manager should involve
group people in decision making and to understand their needs and to motivate
them. Should also provide reasons for decisions and represent the view and
ideas of work force to higher authorities. Line manager should maintain the good
environment. Line manager have to take the following points in mind in order to
make their activities better. Line manager should be a positive role model. Line
manager should be honest to others and help the employees and give guidance
about their job. Line manager should have to speak against injustice. Line
manager should be self confident

1. Discuss the difference between personnel management and Human

Resource Management. Ans : The genesis of Human Resources
Management traces its roots to the erstwhile Personnel Management that
was prevalent in the companies of a few decades ago. Though the two
terms 'Personnel Management' and 'Human Resources Management' are
interchangeably used by most of the authors, there are some differences
between them. Management of Human Resources is a new field of study
embodying behavioural science knowledge relating to the working of line
and staff officials and union leaders to motivate organizational goals. On
the other hand, Personnel Management is that phase of management
which deals with the effective control and use of manpower. Yoder,
Henemen and others agreed that the HRM is a broad concept which covers
many personnel aspects and include social, professional and individual
enterprise aspects, whereas Personnel Management focuses only on
personnel aspects such as leadership, justice determination, task
specialisation, staffing, performance appraisal, etc. HRM is more growth-

oriented whereas Personnel Management is slightly narrow. Human

Resource Planning is very vital in HRM. This is because it leads to the
maximum utilization of human resources, reduces excessive labour
turnover and high absenteeism
improves productivity and aids in achieving the objectives of an
organisation. In addition to the above function, HRM emphasizes on
training, an important area of personnel, which covers the following
aspects:
Increasing
productivity

Improving
quality

Improving organisational
climate

Ensuring personnel growth etc. While in practice both pertained to people

management philosophically the approach is vastly different. The
expectations from Personnel management approach is to take
care
of the people working in a organization, addressing grievances and
complaints formed a large part of the Personnel Management function.
The focus is largely reactive and followed the Theory X approach that
believed that people do not naturally like to work and need to be coerced
to work and often need to be driven to work. The philosophy is more the
stick
approach rather than
carrot
approach. Employee welfare is of paramount importance and managing
industrial relations as a result of heightened trade union activity formed
the highlights of the Personnel Management functions. Human Resources
Management on the other hand adopts a proactive approach to managing
people and the focus is on employee development and delight. Hiring the
right talent,

PART I: Introduction
The relationship between human resource management and personnel
management has been arguing for many years. The strongest argument among
all the advocates is whether human resource management is the same as
personnel management only with another name or it is different concept.
Some debates are as follow:
Approval perspectiveCritical perspective
Guest: its capacity to satisfy some key propositions such as 'strategy
integration', 'high commitment', 'high quality' and 'flexibility'.
Pettigrew and Hendry: HRM is characterized by its close alignment elements with
business strategy.
Storey: developed a model that set out four areas for analysis: belief and
assumptions; strategic aspects; line management; key levers as major
determinants of HRM practice. Legge: The underling value of personnel
management and HRM differ little, and that organizational constrains may well
make a truly integrated HRM approach highly impractical.
Armstrong: financial orientation may well clash with HRM prescription.
Keenoy: being constructed around the highly ambiguous nature of the term.
Source: Ian Beardwell and Len Holden (2001:27-28) from human resource
management
This paper will introduce some concepts of personnel management and HRM,
and then will analyze the difference between them. We define personnel
management in 4 models from different aspects. While defining HRM, we
consider much about strategic integration and strong cultures. And the nature of
HRM was described by 'soft' and 'hard' vision. I will also analyze the case of
'Traders Hotel" in China to show the importance of introducing HRM in practice.
In addition, a brief introduction of strategic HRM will be extended as well.
Part II: The differences between personnel management and HRM
1.The concepts of personnel management and HRM

A.What is personnel management?

There are four main models for defining personnel management.
Normative model
Since management aims at effective result with people, personnel administration
is a basic management function or activity permeating all levels of management
in any organization...personnel administration is ...organizing and treating
individuals at work so that they will get the greatest possible realization of their
and thereby giving the enterprise of which they are a part its determining
competitive advantage and its optimum results. (Pigors and Myers, 1969)
Descriptive-function model
The term personnel management is used to describe the policies, processes and
procedures involved in the management as a system of employment regulation.
It is also concerned with the regulation for which managers are mainly
responsible. (Sisson, 1989)
Critical-evaluative model
Personnel management is concerned with assisting those who run work
organizations to meet their purpose through the obtaining of the work efforts of
human beings, the exploitation of those efforts and the dispensing with of those
efforts when they are no longer required. Concern may be shown with human
welfare, justice or satisfactions but only insofar as this is necessary for
controlling interests to be met and, then, always at least cost. (Watson, 1986)
And Descriptive-behavioral model
Guest (1990a)--'big hat, no cattle'
"Lack of influence with senior management"
"Out of touch with business"
"Promising more than they deliver"
"It has some way to go before it is really part of management"
B.What is Human resource management?
The concept of HRM has gone through three stages:
1. The initial concepts developed by American writers in the 1980s.

2. The comments take-up by British writers in the late 1980s and earlier 1990s.
3. The debate about HRM and traditional personnel management.
Torrington and Hall (1987)--- Human resources management is directed mainly at
management needs for human resources to be provided and deployed. There is
greater emphasis on planning, monitoring, and control, rather than on problem
solving and mediation. It is totally identified with management interest, being a
general management activity and is relatively distant from the workforce as a
whole.
Armstrong (2001)--- HRM develop central, senior management-driven strategic
activities. And these activities are used as a whole to promote the interests of
the organization that it serves. The purpose of HRM is to be a holistic approach
concerned with the total goal of the organization. Hence the importance
attached to strategic integration and strong cultures, which flow from top
management's vision and leadership, and which require employee who will be
committed to the strategy, who will adaptable to change, and who will fit the
culture.
The 'hard' and 'soft' versions of HRM
Some aspects of the basic philosophy of 'soft HRM' can be traced back to the
writings of McGregor (1960) who, as mentioned by Truss (1999), even used the
terminology 'hard' and 'soft' to characterize forms of management control.
McGregor's theory emphasizes the importance of integrating the needs of the
organization and those of the individual -- the principle of mutual commitment.
The hard model stress HRM's focus on the crucial importance if the close
integration of human resource policies, system and activities with business
strategy, on such HR system being used 'to drive the strategic objectives of the
organization' as Fombrun et al. (1984,p37) put it. The 'hard' version of HRM
emphasizes the calculative, quantitative and strategic management aspects of
managing the workforce in a 'rational' way (Storey, 1989).
In contract, the 'soft' versions of HRM emphasize the importance of high
motivation, high commitment, communications and enlightened leadership. Most
HRM models, assert that the organization's 'human resources' are valued assets,
not a variable cost, and emphasize the commitment of employees as a source of
competitive advantage (legge, 1989)
2.The differences between HRM and personnel management
Through comparing the concept of Personnel management and Human Resource
Management, we can find that the most significant difference between them is
that management and business-orientated philosophy were used as the basis of
HRM's concept. Just as Guest says: 'HRM is too important to be left to personnel

manager'.
The first difference is that HRM is integrated into strategy. The HRM policies and
practices are the most variable, and the least easy to understand and control of
all management resources. In terms of the utilization, the organization can get a
significant competitive advantage. The corporate strategy is the core other
functional strategies need to be created and linked into the overall strategic
approach being adopted. Strategic HRM policies are inextricably linked to the
'formulation and implementation of strategic corporate and /or business
objectives' (Devanna et al 1984). The Figure 2 displays how human resource
management can be integrated into the core strategy.
Figure 2.
Secondly, the role of line management is given different emphases. Personnel
management models highlight the view that all managers manage people. HRM
place greater stress on the line managers' responsibility of coordinating and
directing all resources to generate commitment and enthuse subordinates to
innovate.
Thirdly, HRM emphasizes the importance of individual developing and team
management. Because team management focuses on the primacy of the
individual and creating synergy by incorporating individual strengths,
approaches, and opinions seems at odds with the culture of the primacy of the
group or communalism.
The forth is cultural leadership in the organization. In most HRM models top
management is given prime responsibility for cultural leadership. The purpose of
leadership is to create a 'vision' and a working environment that generates
worker commitment, innovation, change and 'self-renewal' at all levels of the
organization.
These points suggest that the human resource management is a proactive
central strategic management activity that is different from traditional personnel
management with its implied passive connotations. Personnel management
emphasizes on standardization, proceduralization, rules and regulations. HRM is
concerned about flexibility, responsibility, and mutual goals and objectives, and
aims to reward according to the individual's performance.
PART III: A case of HRM in practice
The HRM practice in the "Trader Hotel"
'Traders' is a four-star hotel in Shenyang operated by Shangri-La international
hotel groups. It was established in the early 1980s with more than 400 rooms
and refurbished in the mid-1990s. Competition in the market has been more and
more intensive since late 1980s with growing number of large hotels of same

level in Shenyang.
In order to keep its leading position in the market, in 1998 its manager decided
to upgrade both its hardware and software. So a quality-focused strategy was
adopted, which aims at delighting the customers by providing better services to
the customers beyond their expectations'. They adopted the following methods:
Improving training and career development programme:
Developing the employee's competencies is the core part of the programme.
The program develops from the basic skill training to the full-scale cultivation,
which puts more emphasis on the employee's career development.
Communication:
"Traders" operated a 'staff committee' with selected representatives from each
department. And all staffs are invited to quarterly general staff meetings, where
the General Manager of the hotel addresses them and presents awards.
Performance assessment: The individual performance assessment system bases
on critical job success factors, key performance indicators and reward employees
accordingly.
Job redesign and empowerment: work has been reorganized in all departments to
allow employees with greater discretion in solving guests' problems with more
flexibility.
Key performance indicators: The index of Employee Satisfaction and Guest
Satisfaction improved gradually. The number of staffs' resignation reduced from
3.7% in 1998 to 2.5% in 2000. In 2000, Trader's revenue reached the highest
among all the star hotels in Shenyang city.
Discussion
The HRM activities used by "traders" were mainly training, communication,
performance appraisal and job redesign. "Traders" improved the employee's
performance by integrating the HRM with the business strategy. However, this
function couldn't found in personnel management.
The analysis of the practices used by "Traders" is illustrated as follow:
Figure 3 Human resource management practice and policies for Trader's servicebased strategy
The new HRM policies, such as staff training programme, occupational health and
safety, inspired its employees and provided them with necessary abilities and

competencies. As a result, the employees devoted all their efforts and

enthusiasm to the success of the hotel. Its high standard customers' service
leads to great customers' satisfaction, which resulted in the better financial
performance. In this case, proper HRM policies and practices are identified by
managers as critical factors to the success of the strategy.
But how can a firm integrate effectively HRM practices with corporation strategy?
Theoretically, strategic HRM is developed from HRM, which links strategic goals
and objectives of the organization, improves business performance and develops
organizational cultures. We usually define strategic HRM as follow:
Strategic Human resource management is largely about integration and
adaptation. Its concern is to ensure that (1) human resource management is fully
integrated with the strategy and the strategic needs of the firm;(2) human
resource policies cohere both across policy area and across hierarchies; and (3)
human resource practices are adjusted, accepted, and used by line managers
and employees as part of their everyday work (Schuler, 1992)
But strategic HRM in reality is not usually a formal, well-articulated and linear
process which flows logically from the business strategy. Mintzberg (1987) has
emphasized that strategies emerge over time in response to evolving situations.
And Tyson (1997) point out that:
Strategy is emergent and flexible -it is always 'about to be', it never exists at the
present time;
Strategy is not only realized by formulate statement but also comes about by
actions and reactions;
Strategy is a description of a future--orientated action which is always directed
towards changes;
The management process itself conditions the strategies emerge.
So although the policies of strategic HRM can improve the performance of a firm,
there are many problems for the organization to achieve 'strategic fit' in reality.
IV Conclusion
In order to critically evaluate the point of view about 'old wine in new bottle', this
paper compares personnel management and HRM both in concepts and
practices. The results of comparing suggest that One key feature of human
resource management is strategic integration; in particular the need to establish
a close two-way relationship or fit between the external business strategy and
the elements of the internal HR strategy. Strategy HRM is about linking the HRM
practices to organization's strategy. There are two main models for making
strategic HRM policies: best practice model and contingency model. In this

paper, the analyzing of the case depends on the 'best practice' model. Although
this approach may be mechanistic and over simplifies things. But it is effective in
improving the organization's performance. So HRM is different from personnel
management. And in practice, Strategic HRM as the advantaged HRM integrates
the HRM practices into organization's strategy effectively.