Learn about the key differences between HRM and Personnel Management.
Personnel management is regarded to be more administrative in nature. Personnel management basically deals with the employees, their payroll and employment laws.
On the other hand, Human Resources Management deals with the management of the work force, and contributes to an organization’s success.
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management
Edwin B. Flippo had said that personnel management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration and maintenance and separation of personnel to the end that individual, organizational and societal objectives are accomplished.
This reveals that personnel management includes procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of employees whereas HRM calls personnel as ‘human resource’ or ‘human asset’. The two mean the same except for the fact that HRM is more concerned with the responsibility of creating better human relations with the organization and developing a climate for growth of human resource.
John Storey and others tried to understand the difference between the philosophies of personnel management and the Human Resource Management in a book of Critical Text on HRM edited by Storey.
The major differences between the two were analyzed by them as follows:
Personnel Management:
1. General Work Philosophy – Careful adherence to the rules, norms, customs and practices of the organization
2. Operational Flexibility – No scope to let employees go beyond contracts
3. Managerial Concerns – Monitoring the people at work for deciding their compensation etc.
4. Nature of relations with Labour – Resolving all conflicts through negotiations.
5. Nature of relationship with Line Managers – It is transactional
6. Job Design – Division of labour
7. Training and Development – Controlled access to courses
8. Communication – Restricted flow upwards, lateral and downwards
Human Resource Management:
1. General Work Philosophy – Going beyond rules, norms, customs and work relationships.
2. Operational Flexibility – Encourages employees to exploit their potentials for career advancement and growth.
3. Managerial Concerns – Nurturing people at work for effective goal achievement.
4. Nature of relations with Labour – Sees no difference between individual and organizational goals if organizational climate is healthy.
5. Nature of relationship with Line Managers – It is transformational
6. Job Design – Team work
7. Training and Development – Learning organizations.
8. Communication – Increased flow at all levels.
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management
Difference # HRM:
1. Scope – HRM is a philosophy, an attitude, a policy and practice. It remains at the centre of management.
2. Nature – HRM is the concern of all managers from top to bottom in an organization. It represents humanization of management.
3. Satisfaction of human needs – HRM is more concerned with working with people, team building, and team work and tries to satisfy the human needs of the people at work. It helps people to make their best effort to achieve the goals of the organization.
4. Motivation – HRM is an integrated approach accommodating all the aspects of developing, managing, satisfying and motivating human resources. It concentrates more on motivation, morale and job satisfaction.
5. Treatment of resources – In HRM, human beings are treated as resources. Human values and individual needs are given priority in HRM.
6. Important Aspects – The important aspects of HRM ranges from counseling, career planning, developing and correcting the employees. HR managers act as counselors, change agents, leaders, above all catalyst.
7. Determination of policy – HRM is concerned with determining the needs and aspiration of the people and formulating policy to fulfill them. HR managers are like executives who are involved in the formulation of policy and strategy of the general management.
Difference # Personnel Management:
1. Scope – Personnel management is a functional area in HRM and function.
2. Nature – Personnel management is mainly the concern of personnel manager. It is concerned with managing man power.
3. Satisfaction of human needs – Personnel management is interested in the orderly way of administration. It maintains the rules, principles, and legal provisions in managing the people.
4. Motivation – Personnel management is primarily concerned with administration and management of people of an organization.
5. Treatment of resources – In PM human beings are treated as workmen and sometimes they are treated as liability. Personnel management gives importance to efficient administration.
6. Important Aspects – The important aspects of personnel management ranges from maintaining records, enforcing rules, punishing the guilty and keeping the administration intact. Personnel managers are concerned with administration of personnel matters.
7. Determination of policy – Personnel management is concerned with procuring and managing people in accordance with the organizational needs. Personnel managers are considered to be staff executives.
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management – 6 Key Differences
At the macro level the term human resources stands for the total sum of all the components (like skill, and creative ability) possessed by all the people (employed, sub- employed, unemployed, employers, owners etc.) whereas the form personnel even at the macro level is limited to only employees of all organisations.
Human resources even at the organisational level includes all the component resources of all employees from rank and file to top management level, all the employees like managing director, board of directors, persons who work on honorary basis, experts drawn from different organisations, and those people (particularly family members) influencing the human resources of the group.
In short, it includes the resource of all the people who contribute their services to the attainment of organisational goals and others who contribute their services in order to create hurdles in the attainment of organisational goods. Further, human resources include human values, ethos and the like.
Thus, the human resources are much more broader than the term personnel either at the components level or in organisational level or even at the macro level. Hence, human resources management at organisational level (Man, Machine, Money, Materials and Methodology) tasks mean management of the dynamic compounds (resources) of all the people, may it be the owner or employment or directly or indirectly related at all levels in the organisational hierarchy round the clock and throughout the year.
Personnel Management:
1. Personnel means persons employed. Personnel Management is the management of people employed.
2. Employee in personnel management is mostly treated as an economic man as his services are exchanged for wage/salary.
3. Employee is viewed as a commodity or tool or equipment which can be purchased and used.
4. Employees are treated as cost centre and therefore management controls the cost of labour.
5. Employees are used mostly for organisational benefit.
6. Personnel function is treated as only an auxiliary.
Human Resource Management:
1. Human Resource Management is the management of employee’s skills, knowledge, abilities, talents, aptitudes, creative abilities etc.
2. Employee in human resource management is treated not only as economic man but also as social and psychological man. Thus, the complete man is viewed under this approach.
3. Employee is treated as a resource.
4. Employees are treated as a profit centre, and therefore invest in capital for human resource development and future utility.
5. Employees are used for the multiple mutual benefits of the organisation, employees and their family members.
6. Human Resource Management is a strategic management function.
From the above discussion, it has been observed that the traditional concept of Personnel Department has been replaced with Human Resource Management. As a research, the Department of Commerce, Schools of Management Studies, Department of Personnel Management in various universities have begun calling this academic area as Human Resource Management (HRM). Still, this process is in the state of transition.
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management – According to Experts
Some experts are of the opinion that there are no basic differences between Human Resource Management and Personnel Management and can be used interchangeably. Well, there are many experts who have come up with many differences between the two.
1. Personnel management is regarded to be more administrative in nature. Personnel management basically deals with the employees, their payroll and employment laws. On the other hand, Human Resources Management deals with the management of the work force, and contributes to an organization’s success.
2. Human Resources Management is spoken about in a much broader sense than Personnel Management. It has been said that HRM incorporates and develops personnel management skills. It is Human Resources Management that develops a team of employees for an organization.
3. Personnel management can be considered as reactive, in the sense that it provides concerns and demands as they are presented. On the contrary, Human Resources Management can be stated to be proactive, as it pertains to the continuous development of policies and functions for improving a company’s workforce.
4. Personnel management is independent from an organization; the Human Resources Management is an integral part of a company or an organization.
5. One can also come across differences in motivational aspects. While Personnel Management tends to motivate the employees with compensations, rewards and bonuses, Human Resources Management tends to provide motivation through human resources, effective strategies for facing challenges, work groups, and job creativity.
6. Personnel management focuses on administrating people. On the contrary, the prime focus of Human Resources Development is to build a dynamic culture.
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management – 4 Key Points
1. Personnel management is workforce centered, directed mainly at the organization’s employees; such as finding their performance deficits and training them, arranging for them to be well compensated, explaining the management’s expectations, justifying management’s actions etc. While on the other hand, HRM is resource-centered, directed mainly at the management, in terms of devolving the responsibility of HRM to line management, management and organization development etc.
2. Although indisputably a management function, personnel management has never totally identified with management interests, as it becomes ineffective when not able to understand and articulate the aspirations and views of the workforce, just as sales representatives have to understand and articulate the aspirations of the customers. HRM has a more of an integrative role in the organization by involving in the strategic decision making process of the organization.
3. Personnel management is basically an operational function, concerned primarily with carrying out the day-to-day people management activities. While on the other hand, HRM is strategic in nature, that is, being concerned with directly assisting an organization to achieve sustained competitive advantage over its business rivals.
4. HRM is more proactive than Personnel Management. Whereas personnel management is about maintenance oriented and administrative in nature. On the other hand, HRM is about the visualizing and forecasting of organizational needs, the continual monitoring and adjustment of the existing HR systems so as to meet the current and future requirements of the business and cater the challenges pertaining to the management of organizational change and development.
Difference between HRM and Personnel Management – Explained!
Personnel Management:
As per the Indian Institute of Personnel Management (National Institute of Personnel Management) — Personnel Management or Labour Management or Staff Management means quite simply the task of dealing with human relationships within an organization. Academically the three aspects of Personnel Management are – (i) The welfare aspect concerned with working conditions and amenities such as canteens, creches, housing, personal problems of workers, schools, and recreation; (ii) The labour or personnel aspect concerned with recruitment, placement of employees, remuneration, promotion, incentives, productivity, etc., (iii) The industrial relations aspects concerned with trade union negotiations, settlement of industrial disputes, joint consultation and collective bargaining.
All these aspects are concerned with human element in industry as distinct from the mechanical aspect. As per Lawrence Appley “It is the function of guiding human resources into a dynamic organization that attains its objectives with a high degree of morale and to the satisfaction of those concerned. It is concerned with getting results though people”. According to him all management is personnel management as it deals with human beings; its development can be best being discussed in terms of human development, philosophical, psychological, spiritual and physical.
From the above, we understand that firstly Personnel Management is concerned with managing people at work. Such people or personnel do not simply refer to rank and file employees or un-unionized labour but also includes higher personnel and non-unionized labour. In other words, it covers all levels of personnel, including blue-collared employees and white-collared employees.
The shape and form that personnel administrative activity takes, however, may differ greatly from company to company; and to be effective, it must be tailored to fit the individual needs of each organization. Secondly, it is concerned with employees, both as individuals as well as a group, the aim being to get better results with their collaboration and active involvement in the organization’s activities i.e. it is a function or process or activity aiding and directing workmen and women in maximizing their personal contributions.
Human Resource Management:
The term human resource at the macro level indicates the sum of all the components of human characteristics possessed by all the people. Here, characteristics refer to skills creative ability, mental and physical stability and other psychological aspects. Human element refers to all the people employed, self-employed, unemployed, employers and owners.
Human resource at the organizational level includes all the component resources of all employees like managing director, board of directors, persons who work on honorary basis, experts drawn from various organization and those people (family members) influencing the human resource of the former group. In short it includes the resources of all the people who contribute their services to the attainment of organizational goals and others who constitute their services in order to create hurdles in the attainment of organizational goals.
Human resource also includes human values. Thus the term human resource is much more broader compared to the term Personnel either at the component level or at organizational level or even at the macro level. So human resource management at organizational level does mean management of the dynamic components (resources) of all the people at all levels in the organizational hierarchy round the clock and through the year.
Though personnel management and human resource management can be differentiated academically, more or less they deal with human aspect of the organization i.e. the management of men. In one nutshell, we can say human resource management deals with human being as a resource in production activity rather than an employee. Just as materials manager works with material as a resource required for production, production manager works with machines as resource required for production, so also human resource manager considers human beings (employees) as resource required for production.
The difference between human resource and other resources is human resource has mind, brain, thinking and understanding capacity, it can increase its capacity or decrease its capacity as per its will, where as other resources cannot do it by themselves.