MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

BACHELOR’S OF ENGINEERING IN ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

NAME: ASIIMWE DEUS

REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2019/EEE/012/PS

COURSE MODULE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: ASAPH KATARANGI

DATE: 24TH JULY 2021

Personnel management

The term personnel management is more traditional, and was used in the earlier times to signify
the different activities related to the workforce, such as payroll, staffing, contractual duties and
other administrative responsibilities. This suggests that personnel management includes all those
tasks that pertain to the management of workforce.

Personnel management is essentially an administrative function, and the key responsibility of a

personnel manager is to make sure that the requirements of their employees are fulfilled.

Human Resource Management

Human resource management involves all management decisions and action that affect the
nature of the relationship between the organization and its employees – its human resources.
(Beer et al, 1984)

Human Resource Management is an organized and distinct part of management that pertains to
acquiring, developing, maintaining, using and coordinating the workforce in a way that they
perform to their highest potential in the organization. It involves a systematic process in which
planning is carried out for the needs and requirements of human resources, as well as their
recruitment, training, remuneration and performance evaluation.

Differences between personal management and human resource management

1. Hiring

Hiring within personnel management usually involves hiring across a variety of organisations.
This can be done by either a group of people, or one person. Candidates are judged by how well

their CV matches a rigorous checkbox list, regardless of the individual’s talents and personality
while in human resource management, the method prefers to hire employees by partnering with
the company hiring manager – a relatively new role in human resource management – who
understands the specific needs of the company or organisation. This process ensures that the
employee hired not only possesses the skills needed to perform adequately, but also fits the
culture of the organisation.
 2. Employee orientation

The key objective of the orientation process for the personnel management team is to review and
sign required paperwork with the employee upon them joining an organisation. This paperwork
follows a traditional framework and includes an employee handbook that documents all intended
employment policies and procedures while the human resource management team takes a more
nurturing approach to employee orientation. New employees are welcomed into the organisation
with sufficient training and are, on occasion, offered opportunities such as formal mentoring
programs and meet-and-greets with other employees.

3. Managing employees

When managing employees, personnel management protocol tends to take on a particularly

traditional approach, one that has been in use for many years, favoring structure and rhythm.
This traditional structure requires that employees follow the company code of conduct
rigorously. This method is implemented from the moment they are hired through to, and
including, when they are transferred, promoted or leave the company. Employees are required to
educate themselves on these processes and codes of conduct through the employee handbook
given to them in their first week of work while In a more progressive approach, human resource
management relies on relationships to ensure a steady work flow with thriving productivity. The
team is there to help ensure healthy communication between managers and employees. In the
interest of optimising employee output, human resource management supports the line manager
in ensuring that the strengths of each employee are recognised and utilised.

4. Compensation and benefits

Personnel management tends to follow company policy without question. Employee benefits are
often limited by preventing promotions above one salary grade and restricting annual increases
within a compensation system. This is done to ensure consistency and encourage employee
motivation through a scheduled pay grade range, which allows the employee to move up in pay
grade at a consistent pace – usually one pay step up per year of service while consistency is also
key within human resource management, this approach focuses on employee development rather
than company policy. Human resource management understands the value of an employee who
is recognised for their performance, whether that be in the form of a pay raise or even an
impressive benefits package.

5. Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with
employment law and handling related tasks. While HR on the other hand, is responsible for
managing a workforce as one of the primary resource that contributes to the success of an
organization.

6. Human resource is described as much broader in scope than personnel management. HR is

said to incorporate and develop personnel management task while seeking to create and develop
teams of workers for the benefit of the organization. A primary goal of HR is to enable
employees to work to maximum levels of efficiency.

7. Personnel management can include administrative task that are both traditional and routine. It
can be described as reactive, providing a response to demand and concerns as they are presented,
while by contrast, HRM involves on-going strategies to manage and develop and organisation’s
work force. It is proactive as it involves the continuous development of functions and policies for
the purpose of improving a company’s work force.

8. Personnel management is often considered as an independent function of an organization

while HRM on the other hand, tends to be an integral part of overall capacity function.

9. In personnel management, training and development are controlled and limited, while in
HRM, it is always, improving-learning.

10. Personnel management is typically the sole responsibility of an organisation’s personnel

department while in HR, all of an organisation’s managers are often involved in some manner
and a chief goal may be to have managers of various departments and develop the skills
necessary to handle personnel related tasks.

11. In personnel management, labour is treated as a tool which is expendable and replicable
while, HRM people are treated as assets to be used for the benefit of organization. Its employees
and the society at large.

12. Personnel management focus on division of labour, while HRM focus on team work.
13. As far as conflict handling is concerned, personnel management reach temporary solutions,
while HRM manage climate, culture, and everlasting solutions.

14. In personnel management, fixed grades of pay are to be given, while in HRM, performance
related pay are to be given.

15. Personnel management’s role is transactional, and HRM role is transformational leadership.

16. In case of personnel management, managerial task and labour tasks are monitoring while in
case of HRM, managerial task and labour tasks are nurturing.

17. Perception of conflict is institutionalising in personnel management, while it is pathological.

Conclusion – personnel management vs human resource management

Human resource management was developed as an extension of personnel management, with the
objective of fulfilling the gaps present in the traditional approach. It is very important for
organizations to incorporate human resource management because there is very high competition
in the present times, and it is imperative for every organization to give priority to employees and
their needs.

Companies today find it very difficult to retain hard-working and efficient employees because
they are fully aware of their rights within the organization. Hence, human resource management
is vital as it makes sure that the rights and requirements of employees are taken into account and
aligned with the objectives of the organization.

Reference:

May 17, 2019 Aline Sampras and Ghada Eweda-Registered student MBA-marketing