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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Theory and Practice
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Theory and Practice
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Theory and Practice
John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold
MACMILLAN
© John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold 1994
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 T ottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 1994 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-58877-2 ISBN 978-1-349-23340-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23340-3
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy-edited and typeset by Povey-Edmondson Okehampton and Rochdale, England
8 7 6 5 03 02 01 00 99
To Amy, Andrew and Jennie
'People developed and upgraded on a continuous basis will be your edge towards 2000. The competition can copy your technology, but they cannot copy the creativity, knowledge, judgement and skills of your committed workforce.'
The authors
I Contents
List of T abies vm
List of Figures 1x
List of Abbreviations XI
Preface xu
Acknowledgements xv
PART 1 THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
1 Human Resource Management in Transition john Bratton 3 2 Global Capitalism and Competitive Advantage
john Bratton 36 3 Restructuring Work: Fordism and Post-Fordism
John Bratton 57 4 Employee Health and Safety john Bratton 84
PART 2 PLANNING AND SELECTION
5 Human Resource Planning Jeffrey Gold 121 6 Recruitment and Selection Jeffrey Gold 144
PART 3 REWARDS AND DEVELOPMENT
7 Performance Appraisal Jeffrey Gold 169 8 Rewards Management john Bratton 190 9 Human Resource Development Jeffrey Gold 225
PART 4 EMPLOYEE AND LABOUR RELATIONS
14 Communications and Employee Participation john Bratton 249
11 Industrial Relations John Bratton 282 12 Back to the Future John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold 314
Glossary 325
Bibliography 329
Index 340
vii
I List of T abies
1.1 Ranking of HRM activities of general managers and HRM specialists, 1990 9
2.1 The economic context of trading organizations, 1984 and 1990 42 2.2 The top 25 multinationals 44 2.3 Technical change, 1984 and 1990 45 4.1 Arrangements for dealing with health and safety, 1984 and 1990 112 6.1 Summary of research on selection interviews 159 7.1 Why companies review performance 171 7.2 Summary of findings from Meyer, Kay and French study 172 7.3 Grades of employee and performance reviews 176 7.4 Responses of managers six months after attending a development
centre 184 10.1 Information given to employees or their representatives, by ownership in
the private sector, 1990 260 10.2 Some methods used by management to communicate with their
employees, 1984-1990 265 10.3 Extent of JCCs by sector, 1984-1990 270 10.4 Form of employee involvement in local authorities, 1987 271 11.1 Aggregate union membership and density in the United Kingdom, 1979-91
(thousands and per cent) 286 11.2 Incidence of union representatives, by sector, 1990 287 11.3 Change in membership of the 10 largest TU C affiliated unions, 1979-1991
(thousands and per cent) 294 11.4 Basis for most recent pay increase in private manufacturing, 1984-
1990 304 11.5 Employees covered by collective bargaining, 1968 and 1990 308
Vlll
I List of Figures
1.1 Management as science, art, politics and control 7 1.2 The evolution of human resource management 16 1.3 The Harvard analytical model of HRM 22 1.4 Stereotypes of personnel management and human resource
management 23 1.5 The Guest model of HRM 24 1.6 The Storey model of HRM 27 1.7 The human resource management cycle 28 1.8 Situational factors, stakeholder interests and HR strategies: a combined
2.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 6.1 6.2
model 30 The external contexts of Human Resource Management Example of job rotation 66 Example of job enlargement 67 Example of job enrichment 67 The job characteristic model 70 Ideal types of Fordist and Post-Fordist production systems Core elements of the Japanese production model 75 A model of Japanese industrial management 76 Three approaches to job design 79 A trade union view on health and safety 88 The cost of an accident 90 HASA WA 1974: the duties on employers 96 Typical symptoms of stress 97 The EC code on sexual harassment 99 Some causes of stress 100 Stress causes by the 'dual-role' syndrome 101 Action to reduce occupational stress 102 Smoking-related costs 103 Strategies to improve health and safety in the workplace Checklist for health and safety 114 The rationalized approach to manpower planning The diagnostic approach to manpower planning Patterns of responses to the demographic downturn A model of HRP 131 A framework of labour market segmentation 135 A model of career management 138
124 128
130
The progress of functionally flexible workers 149 An attraction-selection-attrition framework 153
lX
38
74
106
X
6.3 6.4 6.5 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 8.10 8.11 8.12
9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7
10.1 10.2 10.3
10.4
10.5
11.1 11.2 11.3
List of Figures
Job description format 154 Seven point plan 154 Five-fold grading system 155 A performance control approach to appraisal 173 The performance of work as a transformation process 177 Developmental decisions 178 A framework for the design of organisational control mechanisms 186 A planning BARS 186 Types of individual effort and reward A framework for rewards management Reward actions that rely on job analysis The process of job analysis 201
193 197
200
Methods of collecting job analysis data 201 Typical job ranking 204 Typical ranking jobs by compensable factors 205 Point system matrix 206 A model of factors influencing pay level 210 The construction of pay levels 210 Indirect government influence on rewards management 217 Women's pay as a percentage of men's, EC countries (non-manual employees in retail sector) 218 Task and personal learning dimensions in career effectiveness 228 A four-stage training model 233 Bramley's effectiveness model 234 The elements of HRD 237 Traditions of learning 239 Kolb's learning cycle 240 A model of the transfer process 242 Dimensions of employee participation 253 The involvement-commitment cycle 254 A model of the communication process and methods of communication 260 Downward, upward, and horizontal organizational communication in a retail store 261 Example of joint consultation and collective bargaining in local government 273 Working days lost due to stoppages (UK) 295 Dimensions of managerial style 299 Functional strategies that support corporate-level strategy 300
I List of Abbreviations
ACAS APEX AEU AEEU AUEW ASTMS CBI CNC COHSE EEF EETPU EOC GMB HRD HRM HRP JCC JIT MSF NUPE TASS TGWU TQC TQM TUC WIRS
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff Amalgamated Engineering Union Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs Confederation of British Industry Computer numerically controlled (machine tools) Confederation of Health Service Employees Engineering Employers' Federation Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union Equal Opportunities Commission General, Municipal Boilermakers' Union Human resource development Human resource management Human resource planning Joint Consultative/Consultation Committee Just-in-time Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union National Union of Public Employees Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Staffs Transport and General Workers' Union Total quality control Total quality management Trades Union Congress Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (UK)
Xl
I Preface
In the 1990s human resource management has become one of the most dynamic and challenging areas of European business. The turbulent business climate in Britain today, brought by changing markets and increased global competitiveness, changing technologies, changing employment legislation, and changing work force composition is challenging managers to utilize their human resources more effectively to gain competitive advantage. The changes in the nature of employment toward more knowledge-based, self-paced work in both the manufacturing and service sectors will demand greater skill and 'empowerment' of workers than was required in the past. Managers must understand the importance of creating work structures and human resource processes that enable people to work more effectively within organizations. In academia, human resource management has been the area of fastest growing teaching and research interest within the broad subject area of business studies. Since the early 1980s, new courses in human resource management (HRM), at undergraduate and graduate levels, have been created in higher education institutions in the United States, Britain and Canada. Research on HRM has focused on constructing new theoretical frameworks or models to study HRM. In addition, empirical-based data has been gathered, analyzed and published on the extensiveness of HRM practices in North American and British industry.
The field of HRM is in a state of rapid transition. HRM scholars are adopting new perspectives and theoretical frameworks and placing more emphasis on strategic considerations. The purpose of Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice is to provide our readers with a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the latest relevant theories, practices, and functional activities of human resource management. For some time there has been a tendency of textbooks on personnel management to be much more prescriptive and practical than analytical. Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice is intended as a rigorous, but readable, coverage of contemporary theories and concepts in key human resources activities such as recruitment and selection, appraisal, training and development and rewards management. This book was written to meet the needs of undergraduate Business Studies students. We have based the structure and contents on our own teaching, consultancy and research experience in HRM, and on current research findings and literature in the field. This book has been written specifically for the British audience, but it draws examples and literature on HRM from North America. This helps readers to compare international developments in HRM and to develop a broader understanding of HRM beyond the UK issues and practices.
xu
Preface xiii
• Pedagogical features Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice includes a number of features that help the learning process:
• Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives. Each chapter opens with a topic outline and a set of learning objectives to guide the reader through the material that follows.
• 'HRM in Practice' Boxes. These are strategically placed in the chapter to help illustrate current developments or practices in HRM.
• Diagrams and Tables. Some of the conceptual material is presented by graphic diagrams. The aim is to help the reader to visualize the key elements of the theory being discussed. Data are presented to facilitate interpretation of key trends in HRM.
• Theory and Practice. This book bridges the gap between those books that are primarily theoretical and the textbooks that discuss what the personnel manager does, or should be doing (the prescriptive approach). This book is both theoretical and prescriptive. It reviews and discusses relevant HRM concepts and includes up-to-date references to support the theory and research. It also has a practical orientation- the 'how to' activities of HRM. For example, it discusses how to recruit and select and how to design training programmes.
• Chapter Summary and Discussion Questions. All chapters end with a summary, a list of key concepts, a set of discussion questions to test readers' understanding of core concepts and to facilitate classroom or group discussion.
• Further Reading. All chapters end with references for further reading to provide elaboration of topics discussed in the text.
• Chapter Case. Each chapter includes a case to facilitate application of the theoretical material in the text and to help the reader appreciate the challenges of managing people at work.
• Glossary. A glossary is provided at the end of this book to help the reader review and define the key terms used in the text.
• Bibliography. A bibliography provides the student with a comprehensive list of sources/works cited in the text.
• Index. At the end of the book an index is included to help the reader search for relevant information and make this book a valuable resource for completing assignments or projects.
We are confident that these features will make Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice a valuable learning resource. We are also confident that this book will encourage the reader to question, to doubt, to investigate, to be sceptical and to seek multi-causality when analyzing the problems and challenges of HRM in Britain.
• The plan of this book This book is divided into four major parts. These parts are, of course, interconnected but, at the same time, they reflect different focuses of study.
x1v Preface
Part 1 introduces the role of HRM and addresses some of the controversial theoretical issues surrounding the field of HRM. The external contexts that affect human resource management policies and actions inside the organization, changes in job design, and occupational health and safety are also examined in this section. This discussion provides the context of HRM and prepares the groundwork for Parts 2 to 4.
Parts 2 and 3 examine the key components that comprise the HRM cycle illustrated in Figure 1.7: selection, appraisal, human resource development, and rewards. Several writers have reported how each of these four areas is back in vogue. The use of the assessment centre and psychological tests measuring personality appears to be on the increase (see Chapter 6). Performance appraisal methods, both among non-manual and manual workers, is growing in organizations on both sides of the Atlantic (see Chapter 7). In the area of reward or compensation management, employers in the 1980s have been moving towards a more individualist approach to the wage-effort bargain: merit pay, for instance, is increasingly replacing the traditional practice of the rate for the job (see Chapter 8). Human resource development is seen by theorists as a vital component, if not the pivotal component, of the human resource management cycle (see Chapter 9).
In Part 4 we address some of the developments in communications and industrial relations. There is evidence that organizations are devoting more resources to employee communication programmes and introducing employee involvement arrangements (see Chapter 10). In the area of industrial relations, the traditional 'pluralist' or 'Donovan' model is undergoing change (see Chapter 11).
I Acknowledgements
This textbook was inspired by, and to a large extent draws upon, teaching and research in which we were involved at Leeds Business School, at Leeds Metropolitan University and the University College of the Cariboo.
In writing the book a number of acknowledgements are due. We would like to thank all the students we have taught in human resource management and industrial relations modules who provided us with many insights and lessons about how, and what, to teach- ideas that we have attempted to incorporate into the text. We would like to thank Carolyn Bratton and Maureen Smith at the University College of the Cariboo for reading the manuscript in draft and applying their critical eye, thereby reducing the number of errors in the book and improving the style. We would also like to thank Catrina Crowe, at the University of the Cariboo, for typing some of the chapters. We are also grateful for the enthusiasm for the project shown by our publisher, Stephen Rutt. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their reasoned comments on the manuscript. A special thanks also to Amy, Andrew and Jennie Bratton, who have endured John Bratton's absence whilst working on this book.
The authors and publishers are grateful to John Enman, University College of the Cariboo Public Relations and Publications Department, for permission to reproduce the photograph which appears on the part-title pages as well as the cover of this book. They are also grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:
ACAS, for Table 10.4, from J. Bratton and L. Sinclair, New Patterns of Management (1987).
Dartmouth Press, for Tables 1.1, 2.1, 2.3, 4.1, 10.1-10.3, 11.2 and 11.4, from Workplace Industrial Relations in Transition (1992).
Department of Employment Gazette, for Table 11.1 data. Employment Department, for Tables 1.2, 1.4, 2.7, 4.2, 5.1, 5.4, 5.5, 5.8, 7.3 from
Workforce Industrial Relations in Transition (1992). IPM, for Table 7.1, from P. Long, Performance Appraisal Revisited (1986). John Wiley, for Figure 5.5, from R. Loveridge, 'Labour market segmentation and
the firm?' in J. Edwards et al., Manpower Planning: Strategy and Techniques in an Organisational Context (1983).
XV
xvt Acknowledgements
MCB University Press, for 'Federal Express employers appraise their managers' (1992) and 'Rover learning business' (1993), from Executive Development, in HRM in Practice, sections 7.2 and 9.1, and for Bramley's effectiveness model in Figure 9.3, from P. Bramley, 'Effective training', Journal of European Industrial Training (1989).
Nationwide Building Society, for the extract in HRM in Practice, section 7.1. Personnel Management, for the Guest model in Figure 1.5 (1989) and the
Atkinson model in Figure 5.3 (1989). Personnel Management Plus, for the cartoon in Figure 7.7, and for the extracts in
HRM in Practice, sections 1.1, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2, 6.3, 8.3, 8.4, 10.3, 11.1, 11.3. Personnel Today, for Figure 11.1, the extracts in HRM in Practice, sections 2.2,
4.1, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1, 9.2, 10.1 and 10.2, and the case study in Chapter 10, adapted from 'Working as a team member' (1991).
Philip Allan, for Figure 3.5, from A. Warde, 'The future of work', Social Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 11-15.
The Economist, for 'What a way to make a living', in HRM in Practice, section 2.1.
TUC, for Table 11.1 and 11.3 data, from TUC Congress Reports and TUC Bulletins.
Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
