PEOPLE MANAGEMENT & PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

People Management & Personnel Management

People Management & Personnel Management

Introduction

When the flexible concept of HRM emerged in the 1980s, in the times of Thatcherism and Reaganomics, it “could not help but look more desirable than personnel management” (Leopold & Harris 2009, 10-15). The attractiveness of the theory of managing personnel led to a proliferation of HRM language. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen if there is more to HRM than only a new and shining rhetoric.

A number of authors stress the difficulties of identifying clear differences between personnel management and HRM, and maintain that the most obvious change is a “re-labelling process” (Hollinshead, Nicholls & Tailby 2003, 24-28). Guest, Paauwe & Wright (2008) agrees that “a change of label” is obvious, though one cannot be sure that the content of differentiates to any extent. However, the new terminology may at least rid personnel management from its unfavourable welfare image and other “negative connotations” and thus, save the ailing function of managing personnel from marginalisation.1Accordingly, some HR academics maintain that new labels on old bottles may have their uses, even if it is only for marketing purposes (Gillmore & Williams 2009, 24-27). Furthermore, a valuable contribution of HRM is to direct the attention to regarding people as the key resource of organisations and lending the management of personnel increased importance (Foot & Hook 2008, 15-49).

Some companies still prefer to use the older terms 'personnel' or 'personnel management'. This poses the question as to whether terminology matters and whether it is a different approach to carrying out the cycle of activities outlined above. This was the subject of debate when HRM arrived in the UK in the 1980s, but in order to understand this discussion it is important to provide some historical background as to how it has evolved, and why HRM proved to be a controversial subject for practitioners and academics alike. The personnel management role has a lengthy history, emerging at the end of the nineteenth century largely as a reaction to harsh industrial conditions and involving the campaigning of enlightened employers for what was called 'industrial betterment'. This was often linked to Quaker owner-employers such as Cadbury and Rowntree. Even at that time, there was some ambiguity about the role of 'welfare worker' and this arguably persists, although it might be demonstrated differently, as Box 1.5 illustrates. At that time, all those engaged in this occupation were women, and their gender dominance in all but the more senior levels of this field of work still continues (Collings & Wood 2009, 20-38).

Personnel Management versus Human Resource Management

The view that there are more similarities than differences between personnel and HR management is shared by a number of authors. Legge, for instance, is tempted to say that there are “not a lot” (1989: 27) differences between the two approaches, but nevertheless manages to detect some diverging aspects. These however cannot be qualified as substantial differences, but are rather a matter of emphasis and meaning (Bratton & Gold 2007, ...