Theoretical and Ethical Foundations of Human Resource Management. A German Point of View
| Published date | 01 June 1994 |
| Pages | 35-47 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459410066274 |
| Date | 01 June 1994 |
| Author | Hans Jürgen Drumm |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Ethical
Foundations of
HRM
35
Theoretical and
Ethical Foundations of
Human Resource Management
A German Point of View
Hans Jürgen Drumm
Universtät Regensburg, Germany
Paradigms of Human Resource Management and the Function of
Theories
After more than 25 years of research and teaching on the use of human resources
in enterprises, human resource management (HRM) has become a well-established
academic field throughout most of Germany’s university faculties of management
and economics. The name of the discipline, however, has changed several times,
signalling not only the development of HRM as an entrepreneurial function
[1, p. 316-23], but also a change of paradigms. In particular, all the researchers
and practitioners who have contributed to the development of HRM over the last
three decades have become aware of this change of paradigms.
The first paradigm concentrated on the administration of personnel and
remained valid until the beginning of the 1970s[2, pp. 3-4]. This paradigm was
then abandoned in favour of the new paradigm of decision making in HRM:
decisions about the workforce in general, and decisions of personnel managers
in particular, increasingly became objects of research and teaching[3, p. 263]. At
the same time, since the early 1970s, this second paradigm has also been closely
linked to the paradigm of the humanization of employment. The third paradigm,
arising since the end of the eighties, integrates HRM closely with all other
entrepreneurial functions and views the firm’s personnel as a set of more
individualized human resources which have to be used effectively, as well as
responsibly, according to social targets and norms. Existing alongside these three
paradigms throughout was that of economic rationality, which remained valid
among theorists and practitioners, especially if they had a management education
and background rather than a specialist HRM training. Finally, perhaps more
evident in practice than in research, the paradigm of social responsibility for
personnel has been of constant importance since the fifties.
The functions of these paradigms can easily be identified. First, they give us
a feeling of what is, and was perceived to be, important, and which consequently
determined the selection and evaluation of HRM problems. Second, they show
us that all decisions on personnel issues in general, and on individuals among
the employees, have to be made with multiple objectives. Consequently, these Employee Relations, Vol. 16 No. 4,
1994, pp. 35-47. © MCBUniversity
Press, 0142-5455
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