Personnel Management vs Strategic Hrm Essay Example
“Over the past decade a shift has occurred away from ideas of ‘personnel management’ towards HRM and concepts of people management” (Pass, S. & Hyde, P., 2005) This shift has been essential, as with the globalization of the market and more competitors, firms have found it more and more difficult to gain competitive advantage. In order to adapt to this changing environment, the firm’s traditional management system evolved to a more strategic approach towards human resource management. “Strategy is about building sustainable competitive advantage that in turns creates above average financial performance”. (Becker, B & Huselid, M., 2006) (Wielemaker, M. et al, 2005) states that before the shift, firms were seeking competitive advantage from outside, such as in costs of goods and trade prices. But a new belief argues that the principal source of competitive advantage actually lies within the firm itself. It is now thought that the main sources of competitive advantage are dependent on people. This new ideology has caused the role of human resources from being supportive, to being strategic.
As (Wielemaker, M. et al, 2005) stated the role of traditional personnel management was mainly supportive and repetitive. Tasks such as training, recruiting and compensation were the usual roles of the human resources department. (Pass, S. & Hyde, P., 2005), argues that now, with strategic human resources management, the role of the human resources department has become more one of to ensure strategic integration, long term planning and a transfer from human resources responsibility to line management. From this, it can be concluded that strategic human resource management now focuses more on its internal people. It can also be argued that it is now regarded as a significantly more important role than previous, where the role of personnel management was seen as an option, it is now seen as a crucial part of a firm’s success.
The purpose of this essay is to critically evaluate