Personal Management & HRM

Difference between Personal Management and Human Resource Management

Difference between Personal Management and Human Resource Management

Introduction

The difference between personal management and the human resource management has always been under consideration via many authors, and almost all the authors have notified the similar outcome based on just “re-labelling process”. This terminology had assisted the personal management in terms of getting rid of its traditional image of negative implications (Poole, 1999 pp. 217-218).

There had been ambiguous issues in the management of organizational demands and the needs of employees in the personal management. The transformation into human resource management has provided an escape from such an ambiguity as it has focused on the organisational loyalties of the personnel function (Secrod, 2003 pp. 114-116).

Discussion

The Development and Functions of Personnel Management (PM)

Personal management refers to the set of activities concerning the workforce including payroll, staffing, mediating between staff and management, complying employee law and other administrative task. It is concerned mainly with managing the workforce not resources (Reddy, 2004 pg. 21).

PM practitioners hold the pluralist view that employees are an economic resource and an operational cost, to be controlled in order to ensure profitability of the organisation (Reddy, 2004 pg. 21). In PM the main focus is on the collectivism, with relationships between management and worker being contractual, where one hires and the other performs; any changes occur after prolonged taxing negotiations (Venkataratnam, 2004 pg. 9,10).

Figure 1 Personal Development (www.fujixerox.com)

Such level of functional development of Personal Management presents it as archaic and has therefore been evolved into Human Resource Management (HRM) as HRM is somehow modern. However, both concern the management of people. The main differences existing between PM and HRM can be characterized as fundamentally philosophical (Armstrong, 2011 pp. 7-8).

The need of resource-centric level of organizations has imposed the significance of managing the people at first, together with the maximization of Return on Investment (ROI) by secure management of objectives. This led towards the HRM development in terms of fulfilling the management objectives (Luftman, 2011 pp. 39-42). This has changed the mission of PM with a broader scope of management. The organizational success is the foremost priority rather than just focusing on the administrative tasks like PM. However, PM was effective in its way in the era of smokestack, but HRM is efficient in the 21st century that is described as a paradigm shift in the management of people (Luftman, 2011 pp. 39-42).

The Function of the Human Resource Management (HRM)

HRM is a proactive, decentralised strategic management activity that is different from the traditional reactive, centralised operational PM. HRM describes the accomplishment of spirited advantage in the form of a distinctive approach to management. A highly committed and competent workforce along with an array of social, cultural and personal techniques is the key asset of HRM through the strategic development (Fleming, 2000 pp. 2-4).

HRM has the unitary perspective which considers employees to be an asset to be developed and kept in the organization, focusing on individual interest, with flexible employee roles and an ...