Human Reource Management

CURRENT TRENDS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS:

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizations have for decades proclaimed that people were the most valuable of the resources to which they were entrusted. All too often, however, this statement effectively represented the extent of top organizational interest in the human component of an organization's resource base. Intensive strategic planning and management was reserved, rather, for the financial, physical, and technological resources available to the organization.

A widening recognition of the significance of human resources to an organization began to develop in the 1970s. Much of the early interest in a transition from the older concept of personnel management to the new concept of human resources management was prompted by declining productivity in American organizations, and the competitive threat of the Japanese. "Japanese management" became a buzzword in American organizations, and Japanese management is, essentially, human resources management (Pascale and Athos, 1981, pp. 1927).

As the concept of human resources management gained acceptance in American organizations, the concept itself was subjected to intensive review and development. One result was the recognition that an effective human resources strategy could provide an organization with a competitive advantage (MacMillan and Schuler, 1985, p. 28).

In the 1990s, human resources management continues to evolve. Many of the important

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to build good relationships with other team members, to engage in joint problemsolving, and to reduce interpersonal friction. Successful implementation and execution of the team development technique leads to improved communication, enhanced creativity, more effective decisionmaking, and higher levels of organizational performance (Larson and LaFasto, 1989, pp. 726). One of the most important manifestations of the team organization decisionmaking technique is the quality circles concept that was pioneered in Japanese manufacturing organizations, and which, in the 1990s, is found in a number of major American organizations. The team organizational structure is also an essential ingredient in a total quality management (TQM) program. As an inclusive and holistic approach to management, a TQM program, if it is to be successful, affects all aspects of the functioning of an organization. TQM has burst upon the organizational scene with an intensifying fury, as an ever increasing number of firms race to develop and adopt quality programs. Unfortunately, in all too many cases, considerations of organizational structure and human resource management issues are given short shrift in TQM programs (Hart and Schlesinger,

Category: Business - H