Personnel Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Personnel Management - Assignment Example Personnel management requires a sound management since we need to evaluate the status of the personnel activities. This is because there are a number of functions carried out in the personnel department that include: recruitment, training, rewarding, appraising, dismissing etc. To run the personnel department, the concerned individuals need to know the entire organisation and all the employees qualifications needed for various positions. Hence, understanding of personnel management models and theories is very essential. Models and theories of personnel management assist our understanding of the role of personnel management in an organisation. Legge (1978) characterises four models of personnel management. The four models of personnel management includes: Normative, Descriptive-functional, Critical-evaluative and Descriptive-behavioural. In normative framework, the personnel manager speaks about employees in the context of teams, quality, empowerment and creativity. The underpinning of the manager's opinion, norms and values about the people who work for them are reflected in McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. (Storey, 1995) In a cold or harsh organisation, the firm's manager may be distant, erratic, and negative or cod. Their value may be coercive or exploitive as far as their behaviours are concerned. In such circumstances the personnel department: Keep salaries, wages and terms and conditions of employment very low They hire casual labourers only They behave with insensitivity towards employees The employees are supervised thoroughly as they work The employees do not develop deep seated trust in management because of the management behaviours. These norms and behaviours fall outside the welfare, participation and empowerment norms of the neo-human relations school which include: the welfare, participation and empowerment norms of the neo-human relations school which might include the following: Encouraging people to be part of a team Responding to the aspirations of individual members of the organisation Having employment policies that reflect broad societal needs for fairness and equity By seeking secure optimum utilisation of the human resources of the organisation by fitting the right people into the right jobs with the right rewards Putting emphasise on getting results through people by securing their commitment not by coercive or demanding means. The mangers behaving consistently and with sensitivity to the needs of others by applying sound planning, organisation, communication, motivation and controlling activities to acquire, develop, maintain and use the workforce effectively and economically. Normative emphasis may be pluralistic rather than unitary. Management's role and functional human resource management policies are emphasised even more where are different vested interests and a potential for conflict between groups whose objectives are different. Managers must manage conflict in professional ways being primarily responsible for taking the initiative, developing institutional relationships and mechanisms to anticipate problems and minimise the potential for damaging conflicts of right and interest, consulting and negotiating,