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Human Resource Management – Evolving as a Science

with Inspiration from Psychology

- Dr. Sandeep Kuulshrestha

Human Resource Management is a field of study which has emerged out of the
old concept of Personnel Management. From the bureaucratic era of Wage
Administration in late 1900’s to trade unionism and subsequently, the
Personnel Management concept and then finally to Human Resource
Management, this field of study has grown and expanded in mammoth
proportion. In the current times, the HR function is still evolving into a complete
science in itself, with strong influence of Psychology, more so as organizations
are increasingly dependent upon skilled staff resource to work at the optimum
level, along with the high performance expectations. The reason why Human
Resource Management has become a Psychology linked science can be
attributed to the following factors:

a. Growth in the Service Sector: In countries like United States and India,
the growth of service sector has been phenomenal and it has overtaken the
manufacturing sector in giving employment. Services, including IT/IT
Enabled services/Telecom/Retail etc depend upon the high-calibre human
resources, that too in fairly large numbers. To groom them and to motivate
them to take up high-skilled jobs, the in-depth study of Human Psychology
is required.

b. Performance Expectations: Modern organizations have developed and


implemented sophisticated tools to map individual and team performance.
Tools like Development Centre are increasingly becoming popular where
individuals or teams are given some mock tasks to handle and
subsequently, the strengths, weaknesses and areas of development are
shown to the concerned individuals/teams. Every business organization
needs to prove itself to the customers/end users and the same should be
reflected on the bottom lines and industry recognitions. To map the
performance, knowledge of human psychology is a must as it is required to
fill in the performance gaps by mentoring, coaching, motivating etc

c. Employer Branding: Modern organizations off late have become


employee-friendly and wish to project themselves “the best” in their Human
Resource Policies. Companies like Nestlé advertise their HR and
employment related policies on their website and allow anybody to
download the same. There are research organizations who conduct
research to rate the “Best organizations to work with” in almost every
country. Some companies take help of Psychologists in conducting job
interviews. The increase emphasis on employer branding has made HR
quite close to Psychology and allied disciplines.

d. Change in Human Behavioural Pattern: The current generation (in their


mid-20’s) is averse to being dominated and follows its own path of quick
money, partying and lack of respect. This has an impact on an
organization’s functioning and there is a need of coaching and mentoring
such kinds of employees in an organization, for which the managers and
senior executives have to use psychological tools.

Besides Psychology, Human Resource profession has to take inputs from the
following disciplines, to make it a complete science in itself

a) Political science and diplomacy


b) Country specific knowledge to Manage diversity
c) Spirituality and religion (inspiration has to be taken from practices
like Christian Counselling etc)
d) Financial Management
e) Economics
f) Laws
g) Anthropology

Considering the tremendous growth in the global economies, including a


revolutionary growth in the service sector, there is a huge demand to recruit new
people and then to retain the performers. Considering this, the HR function is very
relevant in today’s context. Along with a HR department, every manager of
different departments/teams has to take up a role of a HR professional in the
sense of coaching, mentoring, mapping the performance and leading by example.

© Dr. Sandeep Kuulshrestha


sandeep@post.sk
sandeep.k@inbox.com

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