Introduction
Human resource management is the strategic and logical system of managing the people working in a specific organization. Human resource management entails recruitment, supervision and learning of employees. People working in an organization are a very important asset of that particular organization.
The ability of any organization to meet short term and long term goals is significantly determined by its ability to successfully manage its human resources. Poor human resource management can easily dip an organization into losses as the organization may not be able to maximize the use of human assets.
The main role of the human resource management is therefore ensuring that the organization receives maximum benefits from the human resources.
The human resources management also involves satisfaction of the workers’ needs. Employee’s satisfaction is also closely associated with the performance of an organization. The more satisfied the employees are, the higher the chances of an organization to succeed. It has a major role in determining the comparative advantage of an organization.
The main factor that has determined my decision to take this career path is the professional opportunities available in the field. In the modern world, the human resources management has become a very critical part in an organization.
This is after the realization of the extent to which this department can contribute in attaining organizational goals. This raises a need for expertise in the field. There is also increased need for human resource out sourcing. This has raises a need for more expertise in the field of human resources.
History of human resource management profession over the last 100
Over the last 100 years, the human resource management has undergone a number of changes. These changes have been fuelled by the technological development as well as the changes in the organizational structure over the past.
Organizations are never organized in similar ways as they were in the last 100 years. Technologically advancement has also triggered changes in the human resources management in various aspects.
Kaufman (2010) observed that the safety, welfare and scientific management movements are the main factors which have led to the developments in the human resource management (1).
Other factors which played a major role in human resource management development include the emergence of the labour laws and the World War I.
In the last 100 years, the field of human resources has been evolving gradually leading to changes as well as adding new responsibilities (Jamrog and Overholt 2004: par 1). Most of the elements of the human resources management in the modern business world were adapted from early 1900s. These elements have been undergoing slight changes and modifications in order to fit with the current world operations in human resource.
In the early 20th century, more women had begun to enter into the labour force. By 1914, approximately one thousand women supervisors had been assigned the duties of regulating and observing the conditions of work in their respective organizations (Bratton and Gold 2001: 7). Responsibilities which have been traditionally associated with men are now open for women. The importance of gender equality has been emphasized.
Following the changes in the payment systems, the roles of personnel management has increased significantly. The payment systems has become complex with the emergence of the centralized wages (Bratton and Gold 2001: 7).
Labour unions have also developed in over the past. In the early 1900s, labour unions were less prevalent. However, the need for labour unions has increased in the current business world. Since labour unions involves the welfare of employees, the human resources management activities has become integrated in the field (Kaufman 2010: 1).
The industrial welfare movement is another element which has emerged in the human resources. This movement aimed at improving the working conditions in various organizations. It will require the efforts of human resource managers to ensure comfortable and safe working conditions among employees.
According to Jamrog and Overholt (2004), these changes have led to establishment of personnel departments from early 1920s (par 2). These developments in the human resources management necessitated the establishment of various personnel department in various organizations. The development of these new functions led to emergence of new specialists for ensuring that these needs are met.
From around 1930s and 1950s, the human resources department profession was run by applied and academic disciplines from the system theory and behavioural sciences (Jamrog and Overholt 2004: par 4). In spite of these improvements in this field, the personnel professional still needed further development.
The development process of human resources management received a major boost in 1964 after the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Jamrog and Overholt 2004: par 4). This was accelerated by the demographic, social, economic, and technological trends that followed later. The management of various organizations took notice of these which led to the birth of the human resource professional.
The industrialization process has led into the development of factories where more and more people are being employed as the production increases. For the last 100 years, the industrial revolution has been very high implying a high demand for the human labour. This development has increased the level of specialization. This has significantly contributed in the development in the human resources management.
After the World War I, the human resource management has faced significant changes. Before this war, many organizations applied the informal and decentralized systems in the labour management where labour was viewed as a hired hand (Kaufman 2010: 2). After the First World War, there were radical changes in these views in human resource management.
The traditional model was transformed after which labour was viewed as a human resource. Variations in the human resources have emerged in the human resources which lead to emergence of new kinds of motivation (Klimecki 2004: 7).
Following the process of globalization, the human resource management has become very crucial (Davidson and Carswell 2009: 7). Through the process of globalization, traditional human resource management practices have become less feasible with the current business world practices. For instance, the composition of the labour force is now composed of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
This is unlike the traditional organizations which were purely homogeneous. This has raised a need to have human resource practices which can accommodate and facilitate coexistence of different cultures in an organization.
In connection to this, many firms joined the industrial welfare movement (Jamrog and Overholt 2004: par 6). To meet these needs, organizations hired welfare secretaries who were the first personnel administrators. Their main role was to provide the top management with the needs of the employees.
According to Ulrich, (2005), it require the human resource managers to be caring about people, competent, courageous, and curious in order be successful in human resource management (78).
After recognition of the high tempo (at which the importance of the human resource capital was growing in the early 1990s), connoisseurs in this field began to advocate the human resource to move forward and turn into business partners (Jamrog and Overholt 2004: par 3).
According to Jamrog and Overholt (2004), the early developments in the human resources management can be attributed to the industrial revolution (par 6). The developments in the organizational structure as a result of industrialization triggered the changes in the human resources to cater for the needs associated with the process of industrialization. For instance, industrial revolution increased specialization of labour which also affected the human resource management.
According to Davidson and Carswell (2009), the human resource management had become more sophisticated (8). However, necessary policies and research has been put in place to correct these problems.
Future of the profession over the next 100 years
From above discussion, it can be seen that the human resource management profession is developing at a very high rate. The role of the human resource is rising at a very high rate.
This has been triggered by the developments which have been taking place in the field throughout the history. There has been intensive research in the field of human resource management. This has resulted in continued developments in the human resource management profession.
According to Bates (2002), many organizations will be outsourcing most of their human resource functions in the future (par 10). This implies that the human resource professional will be required to demonstrate various skills and competence since they will be forced to cope with new roles. This requires an intensive research and study in this field in order to develop new knowledge.
In the future, human resource professionals will be required to have high strategic and management skills. It will also require the professionals to have the ability to integrate the human resource functions in the overall business of their employers (Bates 2002: par 3).
In order to be a proactive human resource manager in the future, it will require one to have more knowledge than a human resource manager (Bates 2002: par 3). In other words, human resource managers will need to have skills in other management fields since there will be need to marry different management functions in order to facilitate realization of organizational goals.
It has been observed that it will need a complex model which will assist in organizational effectiveness if the human resource management is going to move into the next level (Jamrog and Overholt 2004: par 1). In other words, there is a need to have an intensive research in this field in order to come up with anew knowledge which will enhance the performance of the human resources management in an organization.
The role of human resource managers is becoming more and more important to these organizations.
There are several reasons why the human resource management is expected to be far ahead in the future.
To start with, there is expected to be a high level of employee training and learning in the future. This will significantly help in improving the performance of the employees.
Therefore, we expect more team working in the future in human resource management. Although several organizations are encouraging group work in organizations, this is still inn its early stages of development. However, many organizations are embracing this at a very high rate.
Many organizations have also recognized the need for encouraging employees in order to provide incentives of innovation. This will require expertise in order to come up with effective and efficient methods of motivating employees.
As the process of globalization continues to take place, there is a need to have changes in the human resource management in order to solve the problem associated with cultural differences. More people from different cultures are being forced to work in the same environment.
Cultural differences can significantly affect the productivity of the employees. It will require the expertise of the human resource in order to overcome this problem. Therefore, human resource managers will be very influential in the future when various cultures are expected to be highly integrated in the work place.
In the future, the human resource management will require scientific management where the management process will be more systemized (Dulebohn et al 1995: 21). Again, this will be fuelled by the need to maximize the benefits of the human resources.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the human resource management career could take me very far in the future. I will get a chance to participate in making critical decisions affecting my organization.
This discussion has clearly shown that the human resource management services are becoming more and more important in every organization. This has raised the demand for experts in this field. That implies that there is an opportunity to exploit my career.
In the future, the human resource management needs to continue evolving in order to move in the next level so as to meet the increasing needs for the human resource services. This will require the human resource department to take more responsibilities in order be improve on its responsibility in enhancing the organizational effectiveness.
Therefore, the future of my career may take me to the high level management in the organization. As already noted, the importance of the human resource management to an organization is increasing at a high rate. This implies that the department is becoming more and more significant in meeting the organizational goals.
Therefore, I will be able to diversify my management skills by participating in the decision table. I will get a chance to contribute in the major decisions which affects the performance of an organization.
Reference List
Bates, S., 2002. Facing the future – human resource management is changing [online] Web.
This article pays attention on the position of human resource management in the future. The article identifies that the human resource managers will be required to have diverse skills in order to fit in the future business world. The article also identifies the fact that many organizations will tend to outsource human resource operations.
Bratton, J and Gold, J., 2001. Human resource management: theory and practice. London, Routledge.
This book discusses the major human resources management practices and how they change with time. The author has identified the process through which the human resource management practices have evolved with time.
Davidson, P. and Carswell, P., 2009. HRM in the Global Environment. Edition 2009, T2.
This journal gives an analysis of the human resource management from the global perspective. The author has identified the fact that the industrialization process has brought about radical changes in human resource management.
Dulebohn et al. 1995. The History and Evolution of Human Resource Management.
The author of the journal analysis the main developments which have taken place in the human resource management. The journal recognizes that the human resources management is evolving which reflects changing organizational structure.
Jamrog, J. and Overholt, M., 2004. Building a strategic HR function: continuing the evolution [Online] Web.
This article describes the major developments which has taken place in human resource management over the last 100 years. The article also analysis the role of the human resources on the current business world.
Kaufman, B., 2010. Hired hands or human resources? Case studies of HRM programs and practices in early American industry. New York, Cornell University Press.
This book gives a detailed discussion of both theoretical and practical aspects of human resources management. The author describes how the changes in the organizations have affected the human resource management. The author illustrates this using various case studies of human resources management programs and practices.
Klimecki, R., 2004. Human Resource Management as Intervention in the Evolution of Human Resource. Nr. 35 (2004).
The author discusses the necessary interventions which rise with evolution of the human resources. The author also recognizes that there is a need for unique interventions in the field of human resource management in order adapt to the changes taking place in organizations.
Ulrich, D., 2005. The future of human resource management: 64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. New Jersey, John Wiley and Sons.
This book describes the major issues facing the human resource management today and in the future. The author gives a comparison of current issues in the human resource management as well as the potential issues which are likely going to rise in the future.