MONASH

BUSINESS
SCHOOL

MGF2661 – HRM
Week 1
What is HRM? Introduction to
Theory
Who am I? And who I am more broadly……

Marie Crozier-Durham
Lecturer
Teaching Associate Wednesdays
10 am &12 noon
▪ marie.crozier-durham@monash.edu

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The MGF 2661 Team

Dr Sue Mayson Chief Examiner

Ms Marie Crozier-Durham Lecturer

Teaching Associates:

Professor Ingrid Neilson

Ms Clair Polonsky

Dr Ruby Ranjan

Ms Katherina Spaeth

Ms Marie Crozier-Durham

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Learning about, understanding and explaining HRM

Models of Theories of
HRM HRM

Concepts Practical
relating to examples of
HRM HRM
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 Unit Overview

4.Team
HRM Issues in the Assignments HRM – practice
Contemporary 3 Quizzes HR Planning
2. Forum Work Design
Environment Questions Talent attraction & Selection
Employee Engagement &
1. Individual Essy Performance Management
Global Disruption
Diversity, Inclusion & Well- What HRM? Talent Development & Careers
being Reward Management
HRM Theory & Models
HRM & the Law
HRM Theory & Concepts

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The value of HR in disruptive times

“To say that chief HR

officers are busy in the
COVID-19 era would be an
understatement. Now, more
than ever they are central
to how companies are
reimagining their personnel
practices to build
organsational resilience and
drive value” McKinsey & Co
July 2020.

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Key Business Trends for 2021
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2020/12/21/leading-in-2021-5-key-business-trends-and
-15-companies-to-watch/?sh=2ff9f658747e BlackRock, which conducted pulse surveys to gauge employee
stressors, a move that led to changes such as “remote management
skill-building for managers, enhanced health and well-being support
1. Cyber-proof your data for employees, and increased work flexibility and time off.”

Facebook’s addition of success with D&I initiatives to executives’ biannual

performance reviews. “The people most responsible and most accountable
2. Mental Health are now held responsible,” said Maxine Williams, the company’s chief
diversity officer.

3. Commit to D& I – now and

forever Microsoft announced it is “embracing a flexible workplace,”
acknowledging there is no “one-size-fits-all solution” for the
company’s range of roles and needs. After the health crisis, it said
working from home part of the time will be the new norm.
4. Calculate the New Remote
Equation
Global Workplace Analytics estimates that 25%–30% of the
workforce will be working from home several days a week by the end
of 2021

Infosys partnered with several others to create Reskill and

Restart, a free platform combining skills assessment, training,
5. Launch the Reskill Revolution and job matching. As president Ravi Kumar said, the
“economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has
made radical reskilling an even more urgent priority for job
seekers and employers alike.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2020/12/21/leading-in-2021-5-key-business-trends-and-15-companies-to-watch/?sh=2ff9f658747e

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Week 1 Learning objectives

Define and understand Human Resource Management (HRM)

and Strategic HRM (SHRM)

Recognise key debates about the ‘resources’ focus of HRM

Be familiar with assumptions associated with concepts

related to HRM theory and practice

Be aware of key points in this week’s reading

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Learning resources
Nankervis, A, Compton, R. and Baird, M. 2017/2020,
Human Resource Management Strategies and
Processes, 9th/10th edition, Thomson, Southbank.
Chapter 1.
PLUS
Week 1 Compulsory Reading
Back to the Future: Implications for the Field of HRM of the
Multistakeholder Perspective Proposed 30 Years Ago - Michael
Beer, Paul Boselie, Chris Brewster 05/2015

Reading questions worksheet (available on Moodle)

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Resource Based View Video on Moodle

You can do this for Weeks 1 OR 2

▪ Watch the video ‘On becoming a

strategic partner…’ found in the
Week 1 section of Moodle.

If you want to read the article related to

the video you can find it on Moodle.
▪ On Becoming a Strategic Partner:
The Role of Human Resources in
Gaining Competitive Advantage - J.
Barney, P. Wright 1997 - Working
Paper 97-09, Working Paper Series,
Centre for Advanced Human
Resource Studies, Cornell
University

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What is HRM?
 What is HRM? Key definitions may imply
different assumptions and outcomes

HRM is about managing the The management of employees for their own benefit
and for [to benefit] their organisations (Nankervis et
employment relationship: al 2017: 3)

HRM is about influencing individual “HRM refers to policies, practices and systems that
influence employees’ behaviour, attitudes and
attitudes and behaviour: performance” (Kramar et al, 2014: 4)

HRM has always been located at the interface of

HRM and conflict potentially conflicting forces within organisations
(Marchington, 2015: 176)

Strategic HRM is about aligning HR “A coordinated and integrated approach to HRM

which ensures that HRM strategies and processes
activities to achieve strategic business are aligned with broad organisational goals and
objectives: strategies” (Nankervis et al, 2020: 558).
The value of employees to the organization
(see the video on Moodle)

▪ Barney and Wright (1997: 4)

– The resource based view of the firm
argues that ‘people are of value’ to the
organization
– Competitive advantage (making one
firm more profitable than its
competitors) comes from
▪ Organisational capital eg firm's
structure, planning, controlling,
coordinating and HR systems
▪ Human Capital eg skills,
judgement and intelligence of
employees
– However human capital can only
provide competitive advantage if
organized through an HRM system
▪ They suggest the VRIO framework
HRs that are valuable, rare,
difficult to imitate and organized
appropriately

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 HRM is important to
organisations because
• Organisations and managers
– Need/must leverage the value of employees to
meet strategic goals
– Are looking for competitive advantage that comes
from managing employees’ attitudes and
behaviours through HRM (by directing employee
efforts towards organizational goals)
– Must manage the employment relationship legally
and ethically
• However we need to consider conflicts between
employee vs organizational goals
 Early models (see Beer et al reading)
• Early models of HRM
– US models
• Beer et al’s Harvard Model
» Acknowledges stakeholder interests and tradeoffs
» Benefits to the organisation, employees and society
• Frombrun’s Model (Michigan Model)
» Early strategic HRM model with focus on org. outcomes
– UK model
• UK model of HRM
– Has roots in IR and Personnel admin
– Acknowledges conflict and mutual gains

• Main model developed from these models

– Strategic HRM model
• It is the model used in your textbook
What is a model?

An ‘ideal’
representation of an
image or idea
A model may represent
an ‘ideal’ of what
should/could exist
 HRM models assume:

▪ People are of value (otherwise

why bother with HRM?) ▪ HRM works as a system
▪ This implies inputs, outcomes and
– Competing views about where this
alignment
value is and to whom? How
actualised? ▪ Is affected by factors both
inside and outside the
▪ HRM is a management organisation (contingency
function/activity theory)
– Does it have to be a ‘top down’
activity? ▪ May have different outcomes
– Does it always have to be directed depending on underlying
towards what management want?
theory

▪ HRM influences employees’ ▪ HRM is about power and

individual attitudes,
control (Whose power? Who
behaviours, psychological
is being controlled? This view
states is contested)

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 The Harvard Model

Stakeholders
Shareholders
Management
Employee groups
Government
Community HRM Policy
Unions Choices HR Outcomes Long-term
Employee influence Commitment Consequences
Human resource Competence Individual well-being
flow Congruence Org. effectiveness
Reward systems Cost effectiveness Societal well-being
Situational Factors Work systems
Workforce characteristics
Business strategy
and conditions
Management philosophy
Labour market
Unions
Task technology
Laws and societal values Multiple beneficiaries
3 key stakeholders
External & Internal factors and
stakeholder groups
Source: M. Beer, B. Spector, P.R. Lawrence, D.Q. Mills & R.E. Walton, Managing
human assets, Free Press, New York, 1984, p. 16.
See also Beer et al 2015.
Using the Harvard Model to explain HRM

▪ Current retail organisational responses

to the Victorian Government’s COVID
19 restrictions.
– Situational factors: changes to
business & strategy conditions due
to the increased spread of COVID 19
– Stakeholders: Govt health
authorities; customers; suppliers;
unions; community – eg Coles
messages to its customers and
community
– HRM Policy choices – pivot to offer
online, click and collect; actions to
protect worker and customer health
– HR outcomes - compliance most
important
– Longer term outcomes
▪ Organisational
continunity/survival
▪ Employee safety and wellbeing
▪ Social/community support and
wellbeing

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A key debate: Employee or Human
Resource?
 What does this mean?
▪ Employee ▪ Human Resource
– A member of the ▪ Employees considered a
organization that has a valuable resource to the
legal and social organization
relationship to the ▪ HRM considered
organization necessary to achieve the
– Managed using organization’s strategic
administrative practices eg goals
‘personnel management’ ▪ Hence the organization
– Viewed as a job holder to may invest in human
do what they are employed resources to make them
to do more productive and
– May not share the valuable eg training
organization’s aims and
aspirations
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 HRM, Power and Conflict
• Unitarism (HRM/SHRM view)
– Common interests between employers and employees (what
is good for the company is good for employees)
– Assumes no need for unions/conflict resolution

• Pluralism (Employee view)

– Assumes that employees may not share the organisation’s
goals
– Hence different stakeholders may have an ‘interest’ in what
an employer/organisation/ government/union does and act
on those interests to protect their interests eg unions
Note: next week’s Davidson et al., reading
This week’s reading: Beer et al’s argument
• After the first 30 years of the development of HRM
“….HRM colluded with managers and ignored the wider
stakeholder perspective......”(p. 431)
• Narrow economic focus (people are resources)
• HRM has become aligned with management and
shareholder interests only (focus on financial
outcomes, short termism)
• Unitarism (shared goals) has replaced pluralism
The future of HRM is to consider the importance
and complexity of human contributions to
organizational success
 So what does this mean for us?

It opens up a discussion about how much focus managers should place on meeting
organizational needs vis a vis employee needs and leads us to ask:

Can organisations remain focused on organizational needs (SHRM/hard HR) and still
gain competitive advantage i.e a focus on resources?

Can HRM be focused on employee needs and wellbeing (soft HR) and gain
competitive advantage ie a focus on resourcefulness?

Is there a point in between that acknowledges that employee needs may not be the
same as organizational needs and that there needs to be a tradeoff eg a strategic
version of the Harvard Model?
 In summary
▪ Take aways from this week
– HRM is focused on ways in which employees are valuable
(productive, skillful, engaged etc) to the organisation
– The RBV is an economic theory that explains why ‘people
are of value’ – see the video on Moodle
– There is some debate about whether the focus of HR
should be just on organisational needs (strategic model of
HRM) or taking account of the needs of broader
stakeholders (Harvard model of HRM) see the Beer et al
reading for this week
– Linked to this is the debate about whether employees are
simply resources or better viewed as resourceful

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