Earlier
days people were ruled by kings’ order or by the will of Gods. Kings, Ministers
and parties related to military forces who held higher ranks introduced
themselves to the civilians as they are messengers of the god. They created
fear for god among the civilians and used them as labourers or slaves for wars
and massive constructions. At that time no one spoke about human rights, HR
ethics or concern for humanity.
With
the industrial revolution in the 19th century people were attracted
to new jobs as massive production industries were started. However company owners only gave concern for production in
order to maximize profits and considered employees as a mere cost. As a consequence of these issues labour unions were formed in 1790. “The basic philosophy underlying trade unionism
was to safeguard the worker’s interest and to sort out of their problems such
as use of child labour, long hours of work and poor working conditions” (Chand,
2019). Upon formation unions struggled to get solutions for employee problems and rights.
In
the 20th century these issues were seen a new light as employers
slightly changed their mindset about employees in to a more humanistic
approach. A notable pioneer in this viewpoint was Robert
Owen who initiated to improve working environmental conditions and working hours.
As time went by many ideologies and
approaches were put forward such as Scientific Management, behavioral approach,
systems approach, and contingency approach. These sacrifices led the way
to now existing new concepts of human resources management.
Presently the functions HRM are both vast and challenging.
There are also a number of pressures for organizations today which have both
positive and negative impacts on HRM. These pressures include rapid
technological transitions, globalization, competition and new organizational
structures. Most importantly HRM focuses on building a learning organization
today “where people continually expand their
capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive
patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and
where people are continually learning how to learn together” (Senge,
1990).
References
Chand, S. (2019). Evolution and Development
of HRM. [online] at
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/hrm/evolution-and-development-of-human-resource-management-hrm/35234
[Accessed 10 Jun 2019].
Senge, Peter. 1990. The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
