Personnel Management: A Framework for Analysis
| Date | 01 January 1975 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055275 |
| Pages | 47-53 |
| Published date | 01 January 1975 |
| Author | John Henstridge |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Personnel Management:
A Framework for Analysis
John Henstridge
Abstract
The paper suggests that traditional descriptive approaches
to Personnel Management do not successfully answer the
question 'what is Personnel Management?', nor do they
explain the way in which it actually exists in work organiz-
ations. A framework for analysis is proposed, looking at
work organizations from the perspective of the Personnel
Manager; it is suggested that this framework may help to
answer some of these questions, provide a means of explor-
ing the phenomenon of Personnel Management and also of
studying it as a subject and a meeting point of disciplines.
Introduction
The literature on Personnel Management gives fairly exhaus-
tive descriptions of the procedures and techniques employ-
ed by practising Personnel Managers; these appear both in
general books on Personnel Management[l] and also in
texts on particular techniques[2]. Some writers approach
Personnel Management from a particular perspective, such
as the historical[3] or contextual[4]. One can, however,
identify two main approaches to Personnel Management.
The one, adopted by most writers since Moxon in 1943, is a
'listing' approach; that is lists are made of practices com-
monly found in Personnel Management and generally accep-
ted, and these are distilled and offered as a consensus view
and definition of Personnel Management. The other main
approach is the attempt to treat the Personnel Management
function as a system within the work organization, with all
the implications of a logically constructed, interrelated set
of procedures of a permanent or semi-permanent nature
[5].
The implication of most of the literature is that there is
only one kind of Personnel Management, and that it is of
general application. The discerning reader, however, cannot
but be bewildered both by the variety of definitions of
Personnel Management and its aims and, also, by the
ambiguity which can also be recognized in the role of the
Personnel Manager.
Relatively little attention has been given to the phenom-
enon of Personnel Management (a notable exception is the
study of Industrial Relations and the Personnel Specialist
by Anthony and Crichton[6]) of answering such question
as why Personnel Management exists, and why it takes a
variety of forms in different organizations.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework with
which to explain and analyse the emergence, function and
role of Personnel Management in work organizations. It is
intended that this framework should provide a starting
point for the study of Personnel Management both as a
phenomenon and as a subject.
The Emergence of Personnel Management
The emergence and growth of Personnel Management as a
specialist function in work organizations can be attributed
to a variety of factors
—
the growth in size and sophisti-
cation of work organizations; changing values in society and
the related demands and pressures for change, eg from
Trade Unions, interest groups, governments etc; the
development and application of the social sciences, allied to
the fact that people rather than machinery have become the
most valuable asset of most work organizations and, in
recent years, a considerable increase in government legis-
lation in the employment field.
To continue reading
Request your trial