Human Resources Management

Procuring, training, maintaining and managing qualified personnel within a business organization has taken its place alongside managing other resources such as raw materials. The entire process has been termed, "human resources management, identifying the resource role that individuals within an organization are expected to perform. The field of human resources is replete with productivity studies, time-motion studies and theories based on personal interviews, but managers continue to clamor for ways to get the absolute maximum benefit from their workers. This research examines two books, Strategic Human Resources and Management and Machiavelli, and compares and contrasts their approaches to the area of personnel management. Particular attention is paid to how the two books approach human resources within the General Motors corporation.

Fombrun, Tichy and Devanna collected 25 articles within the parameters of the Center for Research in Career Development at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. Some of the articles they wrote themselves; others were written by human resources professionals. Two articles consist of interviews with these professionals.

This book is divided into four parts: environment, strategy and organization; the strategic role of the human resource systems; strategic issues in human resources management; and, human resources from the perspective of the chief executive officer (which is where the two interviews appear).

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Unlike the work by Fombrun, Tichy and Devanna, Jay's is a highly personal book, which, while based on research and interviews, nonetheless carries the style of its author throughout. The book is composed of 29 chapters which accurately describe the philosophy which the reader encounters: "From Baronies to Empires," "The King and the Barons," "The Emperor," and "Chamber of Horrors," are examples of the medieval approach to the current world of business. Where the overriding theme of Strategic Human Resource Management is one of looking toward the future, Jay's work is a strong admonition that managers must be aware of the past. It is imperative that managers understand not only what failures have occurred at their own and other organizations, but also why those failures occurred (Jay, 1967, p. 25). Much of the opening chapters of the book are devoted to establishing how it is that the author views current corporations as akin to the feudal states which Machiavelli observed. Small family firms are dismissed as being of little more importance than small feudal estates, both being run by the head of the family and on a personal level (Jay, 1967, p. 22). It is on the introduction of large, complex companies, which have grown

Category: Business - H