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JMD
36,8 Human resource management,
historical perspectives, evolution
and professional development
986 Vincent Obedgiu
Department of Business Administration, Arua Regional Campus,
Received 1 December 2016
Accepted 2 December 2016 Makerere University Business School, Kampala, Uganda
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to trace the historical perspectives in the development and evolution
of human resource management as a field of study and profession.
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Introduction
Human resource spawned from the human relations movement, which began in the early
twentieth century due to work by Frederick Taylor in lean manufacturing. Taylor explored
what he termed scientific management referred to as Taylorism, striving to improve
economic efficiency in manufacturing jobs. He eventually keyed on one of the principal
inputs into the manufacturing process labor sparking inquiry into workforce productivity
(Merkle, 2012).
The movement was formalized following the research of Elton Mayo, whose
Hawthorne studies serendipitously documented how stimuli unrelated to financial
compensation and working conditions attention and engagement yielded more workers
that are productive Contemporaneous works by Abraham Maslow, Kurt Lewin,
Journal of Management
Development Max Weber, Frederick Herzberg, and David McClelland formed the basis for the studies in
Vol. 36 No. 8, 2017
pp. 986-990
organizational behavior and organizational theory, giving room for an applied discipline.
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0262-1711
The theoretical evidence existed to make a business case for strategic workforce
DOI 10.1108/JMD-12-2016-0267 management, changes in the business landscape and in public policy had transformed
the employer-employee relationship, and the discipline was formalized as industrial Human
and labor relations. resource
In 1913, one of the oldest known professional human resource associations the Chartered management
Institute of Personnel and Development was founded in England as the Welfare Workers’
Association, then changed its name a decade later to the Institute of Industrial Welfare
Workers, and again the next decade to Institute of Labor Management before settling upon
its current name (CIPD, 2011). Likewise in the USA, the world’s first institution of higher 987
education dedicated to workplace studies the School of Industrial and Labor Relations was
formed at Cornell University in 1945 (Cornell, 2010).
In the latter half of the twentieth century, union membership declined significantly, while
workforce management continued to expand its influence within organizations. Industrial
and labor relations began being used to refer specifically to issues concerning collective
representation, and many companies began referring to the profession as personnel
administration. In 1948, what later became the largest professional human resource
association the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) was founded as the
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Human resource positions within organizations fall into one of two categories,
i.e. generalist and specialist. Generalists support employees directly with their questions,
grievances, and projects. They may handle all aspects of human resources work, and
thus require an extensive range of knowledge. The responsibilities of human resources
generalists can vary widely, depending on their employer’s needs (US Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2011). Specialists, conversely, work in a specific human resource function.
Some practitioners will spend an entire career as either a generalist or a specialist while
others will obtain experiences from each and choose a career path later. Being a human
resource manager consistently ranks as one of the best jobs, due to its pay, personal
satisfaction, job security, future growth, and benefit to society (CNN Money, 2006, 2009).
Human resource consulting is a related career path where individuals may work as
advisers to companies and complete tasks outsourced from companies. In 2007, there were
950 human resource consultancies globally, constituting a USD18.4 billion market. The top
five revenue generating firms were Mercer, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Watson Wyatt, Aon,
and PwC consulting (Towers, 2010). CNN Money (2011) ranked human resource consulting
the best jobs in America.
References
CIPD (2011), “Chartered institute of personnel and development”, available at: www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-
profession/about-us/ (accessed December 22, 2011).
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Further reading
990 Mayo, E. (1945), Hawthorne and the Western Electric Company, Harvard University, Boston, available
at: http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/30802428/1886432542/name/elton+mayo+%2B+studiu+
de+caz.pdf (accessed December 28, 2011).
SHRM (2001), “An important decision that must be made when recruiting knowledge workers”,
available at: www.shrm.org/page/article.html
Towers, D. (2016), “Human resource management essays”, available at: www.towers.fr/essays/hrm.
html (accessed October 17, 2007).
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Corresponding author
Vincent Obedgiu can be contacted at: vobedgiu@mubs.ac.ug
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